


Flip the Switch

by NocturnalAlien



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Armitage Hux Has Feelings, Armitage Hux Has Issues, Armitage Hux Needs A Hug, Fix-It, Force-Sensitive Armitage Hux, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans, Padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn the Dad, That's Not How The Force Works, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, hux died- wait no he didn't
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-11
Updated: 2020-05-05
Packaged: 2021-02-28 16:34:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 24,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23100283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NocturnalAlien/pseuds/NocturnalAlien
Summary: General Armitage Hux died - shot in the chest by another General and left to rot in space.But one can never keep him down for long. Not only is Hux alive, but he's 70 years in the past, apparently Force-Sensitive, and can't seem to get a pair of Jedi off his case!At least Hux has the chance to get revenge on one Sheev Palpatine. That's always a bonus, right?
Relationships: Armitage Hux & Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn & Armitage Hux, Qui-Gon Jinn & Obi-Wan Kenobi
Comments: 156
Kudos: 427





	1. One

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to my impulsive 'what if Hux met Qui-Gon' fic! 
> 
> There may be typos in here, feel free to point them out!
> 
> I wouldn't be here if it weren't for Wookiepedia. God bless.

Hux knew he had died. Or, at least, got close. Pryde was always waiting for that moment, wasn’t he? The moment to cut down Hux for good. Hux may be good at lying to himself, but lying to other people had been challenging lately. No use in lying now. There was no one to lie to. Not even himself.

For a second, he thought that he had survived the shot, and maybe ended up with the Resistance, but he wasn’t in space or a ship or any kind. Not even an elaborate type of cell designed to keep someone as horrible as him in and away from the general populace.

No, it was just a generic jail cell in a generic police station with generic law enforcement. And it wasn't even supposed to exist! He’d seen plenty of holos, and met enough people, to know what an Alderaanian accent sounded like, and so far every person he’d heard (the guards, a handful of passerby, the intercom) all pointed to wherever he was being _Alderaan._ A planet that didn’t even exist when he was born! He couldn’t dream it up even if he tried.

He didn’t even know how he ended up there. He just woke up to the gray ceiling, on a (surprisingly comfy) bed, a plate of food by the door, and a small window outside that he was too short to look out of unless he stood on the bed. No handcuffs, surprisingly, but he did have to wonder why he was a jail cell, and not a hos-

He looked down at his leg. He was still wearing his uniform, but… he put pressure on it. No pain. He tentatively put a hand on his chest. No hole. No burn. No pain. Nothing. 

Hux exhaled. Looking towards the guard, he cleared his throat.

The guard slowly turned. “You need something?” she asked. Thick Alderaanian accent. 

It sent a shiver down Hux’s spine, but he ignored it. “Pardon me, but I can’t seem to remember what I’m doing here…”

The guard sniffed. “Well, someone found you by their complex, thought you were dead, called law enforcement, you didn’t have any sort of identification on you, no records _anywhere,_ no pass-port, not even a fingerprint.” She squinted at him. “You were fine when we showed up, just unconscious. So, we tried to find some sort of ID on you, even took you here, and so far we’ve found nothing. And, judging by your accent, you’re not even from here.”

Hux’s mouth was hanging open. “Kriff,” he muttered. “No, thank you for noticing,” he said to her, ice filling his words. “I don’t even _want_ to be here. In fact, I don’t even know where ‘here’ is!” Yes, he had a good guess, but it was so farfetched he hoped he was wrong. He breathed. “So what’s next? More jail time? Prison?”

“Alderaan, Sanctuary Coast.” She gave him a look. “You might want to calm your temper. We like you better if you’re nice to us. And, no, no prison. We just need to set you up with some identification.”

Okay, he was right. It was nice of her to give the name of the city, too. But… Hux frowned. “That’s it? I could be anyone.” _You know, the one who commits genocide._ “You’re really just going to let me go?”

The guard lifted a brow. “Are you saying you’ve committed crimes? Feel free to confess, but we’re a little tight right now, at least in this district. We have a lot immigrants and refugees here from Outer Rim planets who are choosing less-than-peaceful ways to protest the Republic. We’re just here to make it civil, but we might need all the cells we can get. Therefore, we set you up with some identification, and you can be well on your way.” She smiled. It wasn’t unkind, but it showed signs of stress.

Hux took a moment to think. If he really was here, in Alderaan… _when_ was he? It could be any year. It could be mere minutes before the Death Star blew this place to bits. It could be hundreds of years before that. 

“Fine,” he says after deliberating. “Where and how do I get myself identification?”

The guard smiled in relief. Unlocking the door, she gestured for him to follow. “I’ll set you up with someone here. We’ve started carrying forums, and getting them accepted, ever since the city started taking in refugees. We’re happy to help.” After leading Hux through a series of glass doors, he was pointed to a desk with a stern looking clerk. “Don’t cause trouble now,” the guard said with a tired smile. “As for the forum, just say you need an up to date ID. No questions asked.

Hux looked at her, unsure of how he should properly react. He felt like he should hate her because she was being so careless, but at the same time, it was a benefit to him. The faster he can get out, the faster he can move forward. “Thank you,” he muttered. Even as the guard left and he stood in line, Hux wasn’t sure this wasn’t just a dream, and instead elaborate hoax Kylo put him in just to mess with him. It could even be Palpatine, that snake. 

“Next,” the almost elderly clerk muttered. Her name tag said ELNE in neat type. “How can I help you?”

Hux cleared his throat, feeling as though all eyes were on him. As much as he could muster, he put on a polite persona. “I need an up to date ID.” 

Elne sighed, nodded, and shooed him over to a datapad. “Fill that out as much as you can and we’ll see what we can do. Alosa over there will help you with the next step.” 

Hux looked over to the next portion of the wide and circular desk, where a younger male with glasses was helping out a Twi’lek family. Another long wait, Hux guessed. 

Looking at the datapad, he grimaced. Not only was it _severely_ outdated, it was grimy and dirty. Bringing up the keyboard, he filled out his application as best he could.

NAME: Armitage Hux

YEAR OF BIRTH: 

“Do you have a calendar, by any chance?” he asked Elne. She seemed surprised. “Or the current… year?” he stuttered out.

“It’s ‘942. 7942 CRC.”

Well then.

He did some quick math, and he took a noticeable second to type in his year of birth.

YEAR OF BIRTH: 7912 CRC

He’s _70 years in the past._ Ironically, he died exactly one hundred years after his fake date of birth. 

PLANET OF ORIGIN: Arkanis

The list went on, and it became increasingly more difficult to fill out the application, but he ended up finishing it up just in time to see Alosa. 

Alosa smiled at him. “Armitage, was it?” 

“Hux,” he corrected weakly. He almost said _General._

“Hux, then. I see your application is nice and thorough… Arkanis, hm? I hear it’s rainy. You aren’t related to Brendol Hux, are you? You’ve got the hair, but you look the same age as him, if not older.”

Hux had to physically restrain himself from doing something unsightly. “Uh, no. It’s a common last name on Arkanis. Never even heard of him,” he said quickly.

Alosa laughed in good nature. “I see, I see. Anyway, you’re in Alderaan’s system now, and it should be transferring to all other Core Worlds in the next few days. Do you want a physical copy of your ID?”

“Er, yes.”

“Give me just one second, then.” To the right of Alosa, a small card was printed out. “We stopped requiring pictures for a while now, so I apologize if you were expecting one. If you have any more questions, there are datapads around the nearby area and some tourists spots and help for refugees. Have a nice day, Hux.” Alosa smiled at him, and sent Hux on his way with his ID card.

Hux stepped into the bathroom. Tucking his ID into a pocket, he washed his hands. There was something very calming about cleaning himself. It was a habit he picked up early on in his life, and it’s one thing he knows he can do mostly anywhere. Even if it’s not a whole shower, just washing his hands made him relax, made his head clear, and gave him time to think of his next step.

Looking into the mirror, Hux cringed. He was paler than normal, his hair was an absolute _mess,_ and he in general looked like shit. He sighed, finished up his time in the bathroom, and set out to get more of a feel for the time and place. There was a bit of a rush at getting to actually _see_ Alderaan in its glory, though he would never admit it to anyone. History was always a favored subject of his.

It was 35 BBY. Naboo was to be invaded in about three years by the Trade Federation. More time would pass as… Senator Palpatine rises to power as Supreme Chancellor of the galaxy.

Hux cursed under his breath. If anyone should die, it should be Palpatine. What good did he even bring? Certainly not _order._ Only chaos, especially within the First Order. Snoke was never a good leader, and now it made sense why. Snoke- Palpatine detested Hux. It was only natural that he returned the favor. 

Once he accepts his circumstances fully, perhaps over a good night’s sleep or two, he’ll think of a plan to give Palpatine what he deserves.


	2. Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for your love :(( I know this is a unconventional fic but every kudo and comment really makes my life a little brighter!!

A good night’s sleep or two, in fact, did not help. Maybe it was because the place he stayed- a dirty, cramped, and soulless place filled with refugees- didn’t allow him much sleep. 

Not to mention the day after he arrived, in the past, with nothing to him, nothing to his _name,_ more protests started to happen. He had managed to dodge most by going to a library or a store, but the streets were crowded day and night with no real rest. 

He thought of the guard at his cell, and scoffed. She wasn’t going to be able to calm it down unless she started punishing protesters. Probably with their life. That is, after all, the most effective way to pacify any group. History showed plenty of examples.

Protests or not, Hux was still itching to see what Alderaan, and the Galactic Republic, had to offer. He saw as much of Sanctuary Coast as he could, from residential districts to administrative. He felt like a tourist. He _was_ a tourist. Hux saw where the city fell flat in accommodating its foreigners, at least in his own experiences with basically being a refugee. He wasn't sure why the protesters were worked up, though. He didn't care enough to check.

He had no money, no experience, no connections. Hux wasn’t above lying or manipulating, but it’s easier to do that if you put a bit of truth into it. What he was supposed to say if someone asked anything about him? Of course there were the basics: his name was Armitage Hux, from Arkanis, he’s 35 years old… what next? He’s not a General of the First Order, he didn’t partake in creating Starkiller Base, he didn’t help _the kriffing Resistance_ just to one-up Kylo Ren. He can’t say he did all of those, were all of those, without sounding like an absolute lunatic.  
  


Hux rubbed his face as he turned a corner. The last on his list to see in Sanctuary Coast was the spaceport. Second busiest of Alderaan after it’s capital city, the spaceport was nothing to laugh at. Ships large and small constantly passed through, from personal to corporate; everything had to come through there at some point. 

It was, after all, Hux’s way off Alderaan. Call him paranoid (he could hear Kylo repeat that to him over and over even now) or even superstitious, but being on a planet that was just debris in space from his time unnerved him. The question of how he was going to leave was one for another day, or at least whenever he mustered up enough patience to talk to locals again.

Hux sat down on a bench just outside one of the terminals, eyeing ships as they came and went. Seeing the utter lack of Imperial ships and models was disappointing, but it did make sense. There wasn’t an Empire, so there wasn’t a need for Imperial _anything._

He sighed through his nose. Other than his ultimate goal of offing Palpatine, what was next? Should he build a reputation here? Go to Coruscant? 

If _he_ felt lost, he wondered how hopeless the influx of refugees felt. No wonder they were protesting. There’s no actual order to the system. Hi, welcome, here’s your ID, maybe a couple pamphlets, that’s all we can do, have a nice day. He eyed the capitol building that was a handful of blocks away and huffed. Maybe he should have a chat with them about the mess.

Just as he was about to get up, a pair of humans stood in front of him, casting a shadow onto the bench. 

“Glad to see you’re alive!” the taller one said, his voice calm and somewhat husky. “I do hope you made it back to civilization without any complications?”

Hux blinked a few times. “Pardon? Who are you?” He glared at them, and their weird clothes and weird hair. Was that some Alderaanian thing or something else entirely?

“Ah, do you not remember? I don’t think we introduced ourselves when we met. I am Qui-Gon Jinn, and this,” Qui-Gon said, gesturing to the shorter and much grumpier person beside him, “is my padawan, Obi-Wan.”

“I- hold on just a moment. Met? I’ve been here two days, and I think I would’ve remembered you.” Hux then processed the names. Qui-Gon was unfamiliar. But Obi-Wan? It couldn’t be… 

Qui-Gon laughed. “Yes, well, my padawan found you in an alley a few days ago. We unfortunately didn’t have enough time to help you ourselves, so we handed you over to the local police.”

Hux pushed the thought of _General Obi-Wan Kenobi is right there_ away for a moment. But… wait. “Are you Jedi?”

Please don’t be.

“Yes we are!”

“Master,” Obi-Wan interjected, eyeing the busying port. “We should go soon.”

Qui-Gon shook his head. “We have plenty of time, Obi-Wan. Besides, this man has yet to introduce himself.”

Hux suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. Of course it’s _Jedi._ Just his luck. As if Kylo and that girl weren’t bad enough. Now there’s a whole Order. Granted, most records were wiped out because the Temple had been destroyed, and all of the Jedi were wiped out. (He hadn't ever heard the name Qui-Gon before.) Interesting… perhaps he could learn something from them, or learn something valuable in getting rid of Palpatine. “My name is- Hux.” Not General. Not Armitage. Just Hux. “Were you going to leave?”

Obi-Wan gave Hux a look, clearly disappointed at his rude tone. 

Qui-Gon, on the other hand, brightened. “Very nice to meet you, Hux. I’m afraid, though, getting a ride back to Coruscant would be difficult right now.” He looked to the spaceport terminals.

Protesters. Everywhere. The volume was slowly increasing, and law enforcement was trying its best, and not doing so well, at keeping the people at bay. 

“Was all our work for nothing?” Obi-Wan grumbled. 

“Work?” Hux asked, despite himself.

“You see, Hux, we were here on a mission to help the city deal with unsettled refugees, and to help the current situation with the protests. Unfortunately,” Qui-Gon added, frowning, “it seemed the city council didn’t listen. If they wanted to take our advice, they could at least implement it the day after.” He sighed, but didn’t look truly dejected. “Well, Obi-Wan, it seems we have to talk to the council again. Come along.” 

Qui-Gon turned, and Obi-Wan obediently followed, even though it was clear the padawan only wanted to leave.

“Wait!” Hux said, standing up and striding towards them. “I have to say something to them as well. They’re obviously not dealing with this correctly. I need them to hear what I have to say.”

Qui-Gon smiled. “Alright then. No time to lose.” With a sweep of his cloak, he hurried off towards the capitol.

What the hell did Hux just get himself into? Working with _Jedi?_ Maybe he actually was insane. Though they certainly couldn’t be worse than Kylo Ren or as annoying as the girl or Luke Skywalker.

So Hux followed and formulated what he was going to say in front of the city council. Speeches would be easy, he just had to make sense. But there was Obi-Wan, who kept on wanting to be the center of his mind. The Clone Wars were an exciting topic at the Academy, and one of Hux’s favorites. Well, it was, before Palpatine showed back up and _ruined everything._ He scowled at the thought of him. 

“You seem troubled, Hux. Something on your mind?” Qui-Gon asked as they skirted a crowd. “You said you’ve only been here for a few days. Certainly Sanctuary Coast hasn’t wronged you that much in so little time.”

“Oh, no, I couldn’t care less about this city,” Hux said without thinking. 

It was the wrong thing to say. Qui-Gon glanced back at him and Obi-Wan looked seconds away from drawing his ‘saber.

“But it bothers me to end that they’re letting these things happen,” Hux added unkindly. “The thing that bothers me is something entirely unrelated to Sanctuary Coast’s treatment of me.” 

“Are you going to share?” Obi-Wan asked after a beat.

_“No.”_

“Leave him be, Obi-Wan. We have more pressing matters.”

“Yes, about that,” Hux said, latching onto the next available topic of conversation. “What exactly did you tell the council to do about this? Obviously the protests weren’t at this stage yet, but I would think some immediate action would’ve been taken before now.”

Obi-Wan explained. “We spoke with the council, briefly, about taking a lot of refugees and such matters into Republic hands rather than the city. We had a few senators or representatives of planets open to negotiations, and in the end a few Core and Mid Rim planets agreed to either direct new refugees their way, effective immediately, or take current refugees from here to their planet within the next few weeks.”

Hux was entirely unimpressed. “So other than bringing in less refugees to here, you agreed to move thousands of refugees to other planets _in the next few weeks?”_ While Hux wasn’t paying close attention to what exact things the people were protesting about, he knew something incredibly recent caused a surge in tension. “No wonder the streets are flooded with mobs. Was that _all_ you could think of?”

Obi-Wan flushed with embarrassment and anger. Qui-Gon added, “This was a mission where I gave Obi-Wan a lot of room to do his own thing. I didn’t think it would escalate so quickly, though. It was a case of bad judgement from all parties.”

Hux scowled. “You cannot be _serious,”_ he muttered as they took the long way to the capitol building’s street. 

The trio had skirted around the side to a back-door entrance, as the main entrance was swarmed with even more protesters than the spaceport. Qui-Gon presented the capitol building to Hux with a wave of his hand before entering. A guard, seeing the Jedi, easily allowed them through, but stopped Hux and was going to question his presence.   
  


“Not to worry, he’s with us. Do you think you could bring us to the council?” Qui-Gon asked with a smile.

Inside, they were led to a hearing room, though Hux doubted anyone was being heard as every councillor was yelling at one another. No one noticed them come in.

“Oh dear,” Qui-Gon said, brow furrowed. 

“I wish we would’ve left,” Obi-Wan muttered, and looked to the door longingly.

Hux’s eye twitched. Even the Galactic Republic couldn’t be civil? And for such a menial problem such as protesting refugees. Far worse could be happening to their precious city and people. 

“WILL YOU ALL KINDLY _SHUT UP?”_ Hux yelled. His voice carried across the room like a spell and silenced everyone. The sound of his question echoed around the airy chamber for a second before the tone settled.

Qui-Gon’s eyebrows shot up, but he smiled, obviously pleased. Hux glared at him. “Thank you for helping, Jinn, Kenobi. You two are incredibly helpful.” 

Obi-Wan frowned immediately. “I don’t recall you _ever_ knowi-

Someone cleared their throat, silencing the murmuring and small conversations that arose since Hux’s outburst. “Ah, the Jedi. I see you are back… I thought you would be well on your way back to Coruscant by now, but I am thankful you’re here. Erm, who is this new… companion of yours?”

Hux obviously was not a Jedi (thank goodness), not by wardrobe standards or kindness standards. “I am G- Hux.” Damn it. “I’m here to speak with the council of the city, which I’m assuming is all of you, about the atrocious displays of protesting outside and how you can stop it now and prevent it from happening later.”

Qui-Gon seemed content with letting Hux speak, which baffled him. _Weren’t you the one in a rush to get here?_ However, Qui-Gon did quietly introduce him to all the councillors of Sanctuary Coast. Hux only bothered to remember their surnames. Qui-Gon also settled people’s suspicions about Hux, to which Hux wasn’t sure if he used Jedi mind tricks on them or just had that sort of charisma.

“I see,” Councillor Amilonn said. Amilonn was one of the oldest ones in the room. Hux thought he could use a chair soon. “Well, as long as you withhold yourself from violence, I will allow you to speak.” He sent a look to the other council members. No time for arguing.

The room gathered in a loose circle. Amilonn and most others sat down on comfortable chairs. Hux remained standing. He took a breath, gathered his thoughts, and spoke.

“From what I’ve heard, Sanctuary Coast has been having problems concerning incoming refugees lately. You seem like a… charitable city, but you are not without fault.” 

Councillors shifted uncomfortably. Apparently, they were not used to someone with an air of intense authority telling them they did something wrong. Hux almost smirked. This was _nothing_ compared to the every happenings of the First Order.

He took a breath. If anyone (Kylo Ren) heard him say this he’d never live it down. He struggled to start. “As someone who could by all intents and purposes be considered a refugee, however unwillingly, I was sorely disappointed by how things were handled. I’m not sure how often you arrest people who are without IDs here, because that was me, but I saw an alarming amount of people having to go through your local police department to get an ID. I’m not saying needing an ID is bad, but the way you go about it, and more specifically, the step _after_ getting your ID is… nonexistent.”

“We used to direct all refugees to a customs section by the spaceport,” Councillor Syrron informed. She was middle aged, but gave off an air of genuine concern. “But that was for people who already had IDs within Core systems. Eventually, we started getting more and more people without IDs or valid IDs. Customs didn’t support that, so we had to direct those refugees, now the majority of new ones, over to where we could easily set up new IDs, which was out law enforcement sector. Crime is low here, so our next solution was just that. We never had a need to fix it.”  
  


The way these people cared so much sickened Hux. He pinched the bridge of his nose. His exasperation was clear to see.

“Right. So you settled for a subpar system for a problem that was only going to get worse? Don’t answer that. As I was saying before, refugees do this: they go to the police stations, set up a valid ID, and are pushed out to keep the line as short as possible. You have _no_ guidance for these refugees once they are out of the station, save for a few pamphlets, maps, and tourist locations. Nothing truly accessible about how your city works at _all._ I looked. I have no idea where I need to go if I wanted to find a job, permanent residence, citizenship, what languages other than Basic are supported, what education is available, and the list goes on. Your refugees are lost.

“What you need,” Hux continued, eyeing each councillor, as well as Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, critically, “is an orderly system for these refugees so they can get their lives started as quickly as they can. I won’t be building this for you, since I’m not planning on staying on Alderaan, but you need to think about this much more critically than you have been. And get a proper place for new refugees to come in, no matter if they have an existing ID or not. The best way to keep the city from functioning and to stop things like this,” he gestured vaguely to outside, “is to make sure people _know how things work.”_

He breathed out a frustrated sigh. “Obviously this won’t be happening right away, but you also need to inform your current refugees that if they don’t want to move, they don’t have to, because you are responsible for their problems and you must be responsible for fixing them. So. Fix. Them. Tell your people what will happen as soon as you can, and _listen._ I can take a guess and say all of you are native born Alderaanians. I don’t need to say why that’s a problem.”

He ran a hand through his hair. It was messy enough already. Hux moved to sit down in an open chair near him and waited. 

Silence.

“Well?” he growled. “Get on it! I’m not doing the work for you. Draw up plans, you imbeciles!”

Councillors were on their feet with datapads in seconds and talking with each other about what Hux had said to them. 

He had nothing further to add. If they didn’t trust his words, then so be it. He wasn’t ruling. He shouldn’t even have come. He felt like someone just wrung him dry. Ugh. It felt wrong. He was used to making speeches about _winning wars_ not _helping refugees._ Hux made refugees. He didn't help them. 

Made refugees, hm? 

Hux didn’t dwell on the thought.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the lob of politics, but let's be real, it just shows that Hux, deep deep down, cares just a smidge.
> 
> Next time: We get to take a look at Qui-Gon’s POV!


	3. Three

Qui-Gon watched Hux speak to the council with intense interest. Who was this man? This wasn’t Hux’s first time being in command, that was for sure. He definitely got what he wanted done, which was commendable always, but Qui-Gon wanted to know who he worked with before that caused him to be so callous.

“Master, should we apologize?” Obi-Wan asked suddenly, his brow furrowed with guilt as he stared at the council.

“What for?”

“You know what. We- _I_ had a terrible plan. Anyone else could’ve been better. Look at Hux! He’s already doing leagues better than me.” 

“Obi-Wan, you are still learning. I expect Hux does this type of thing for his job, or used to. And while your plan could’ve been better, yes, you also showed a willingness to solve it. Not because it affected you, but because it affected someone else.”

“What good is caring about someone else if you can’t help them?”

Qui-Gon didn’t answer.

Obi-Wan huffed.

“What have you noticed about Hux?” Qui-Gon asked.

“Like what?”

“Anything.”

“He… he has a lot of hate.”

“Does he?” Qui-Gon lifted an eyebrow.

Obi-Wan lifted an eyebrow back. “He just called the entire council 'imbeciles.’ He talks down to people constantly.”

Qui-Gon nodded and crossed his arms comfortably across his chest. “What you said is true. Yet, if he was truly as hateful as you’re implying, he wouldn’t have taken time out of his day to come here and fix a problem he said he didn't care about. Either he does have the capability to care, or his goals outweigh the need to not care. It could be something else entirely. We've only just met. No need to jump to conclusions.”

Obi-Wan was about to respond when he noticed Hux shift uncomfortably. Qui-Gon watched as Hux silently suffered in whatever was making him uncomfortable for a minute before swiftly going to the door. Someone pointed in a direction, and Hux was then gone.

“What was _that_ all about?” Obi-Wan asked.

“Hmm. If he doesn’t back in… let’s say three minutes, shall we follow?” Qui-Gon grinned.

“Master, you don’t need to ask,” said Obi-Wan, grinning back.

It was nice seeing his padawan smile, Qui-Gon thought. 

“We should make some plans, Master. Once this is settled, we should report to the Council, and then leave. Actually leave this time.” There was a silent _please_ on the end.

“Mm. Perhaps.” 

“Master. Please don’t.”

“You don’t even know what I was going to do or say.”

“It’s _obvious._ Hux isn’t a stray. You can’t just take him back home with you. He’s not even Force-Sensitive!”

Qui-Gon, for some reason, doubted that. Or maybe it was the Force telling him that something about that statement was wrong. Which part, though? “Isn’t he?” 

“Isn’t he what?”

Qui-Gon smiled. “Force-Sensitive.”

“Absolutely not.”

“ _Absolutely?_ Don’t be so steadfast in what you think is true, Obi-Wan.”

“You think he’s Force-Sensitive, then.”

Qui-Gon hummed. “It’s very much a possibility.”

Obi-Wan gave his master a very disappointed look, and then rolled his eyes with a sigh. “I don’t even know what to say. It’s not like I’ve been able to stop you, but _really?_ Hux?”

Qui-Gon, still looking at the door, blinked. “Three minutes are up. Let’s go find him.”

Outside the hearing room, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan scanned open corridors. “Where do you think he went, Master?”

Slow footsteps sounded to the right of them. “Where do you think who went?” Hux asked, fixing the hems of his shirt and sleeves. His hands were now covered with black leather gloves.

“You,” Qui-Gon answered simply, studying him.

Hux’s hair was now out of his face save for a strand or two, the rest sloppily combed back into what Qui-Gon assumed was his normal hairstyle. Shamefully, his ginger hair was greasy, and apparently uncooperative. Hux’s eyes looked more tired than before; the bags under them were deeper and easier to see. Obi-Wan just now recognized the familiarness of Hux’s eyes. It was the eyes of a killer. He’d seen it in himself, in Obi-Wan, in every Jedi, really, at least those who went on missions. But it didn’t seem to be a recent regret, just a very impactful one. Or was it a regret at all? It wasn’t his place to know. Qui-Gon noted that Hux also looked a tad unsteady on his feet.

“Are you alright, Hux? You seem a little… dizzy.”

Hux frowned. “Of course I am alright.” It sounded like the response to give, even if he wasn’t alright. Why did he feel the need to say that? “I am… unused to the gravity here. And I am also unsure of how my immune system has been faring. I’ve never been to Alderaan.” Hux’s nose turned up at the name. “I don’t want to get sick.”

“Haven’t you been vaccinated?” Obi-Wan asked, wary.

“Of course I have! But I- I was around refugees from who knows where for the past few days and I felt the need to wash my hands just now.” He sighed through his nose. “Is it criminal for me not wanting to get sick?”

  
“No,” Qui-Gon answered. “But I do have another question for you, Hux. I was wondering-”

“Force be with me,” Obi-Wan whispered.

“-If you wanted to come visit the Jedi Temple when we leave Alderaan. We can update your vaccines there, if you’d like.”

Hux’s eyes widened, but his frown deepened. “What? To the-” He cut himself off and looked up. Qui-Gon can imagine him cursing someone out. “I’m not inclined to be around Jedi constantly.”

“Why not?”

Hux’s face turned up in a snarl. “Because in my experience you all tend to point your weapons in my direction, and,” Hux brought up a fist and closed it, mimicking a Force-Choke, his gloves creaking under the gesture, “I don’t know if you condone it or not, but I prefer breathing.” His voice was full of such contempt for them both Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were taken aback.

“I can assure you we do not condone such actions against anyone. Who did you meet that did that? We can make a report to the Council.” Obi-Wan glanced at his Master worriedly. 

Hux shook his head. “I can assure you he wasn’t a Jedi or anyone you would know.”

That was a story waiting to be told, wasn’t it? Qui-Gon was definitely keeping him around to hear it. “Oh? If he wasn’t a Jedi, then you shouldn’t have anything to fear. Even just one trip won’t hurt.”

Hux stiffened at his logic being called out, but took a moment to breathe. He then pursed his lips, his eyes wandering as he thought. “Fine, fine. Whatever,” Hux continued after a moment. “I need to get off this planet anyway.” Hux’s shoulders tensed with a shiver. 

“Wonderful! Once everything is settled down here, and when we make an update to the Jedi Council and secure us some transport, then we will be well on our way.” 

“Joy,” Obi-Wan added dryly.

“And here I thought you’d be happy.”

“Master. Please be quiet.”

Qui-Gon laughed. “Okay.”

Hux gave them a look, but was cut short of judging the two Jedi when one of the younger councillors called for him. 

“Don’t leave without me,” Hux ordered with a jab of his finger in their direction. He sulked back towards the hearing room. 

“That reminds me, Master. Earlier, Hux had referred to us by our surnames. I know you introduced your entire time to him earlier, but I’m quite positive you didn’t mention my own surname. Did you tell him?”

Qui-Gon hummed. “No, I didn’t. He just knew?”

Obi-Wan nodded. “It concerns me. He showed up out of nowhere. He said he was something like an unwitting refugee. I would think that’s what most refugees are, but his wording was just… he’s hiding something.”

“He’s hiding many things. Probably too many. With time, I’m sure we’ll hear about at least some of them.”

“You’re not seriously going to take him back to the Temple like all of your plants, are you?”

Qui-Gon smiled. “I thought it was obvious, Obi-Wan. Besides, if he’s truly Force-Sensitive, he may want training. I couldn’t possibly say no.”

“You can and should say no. I don’t think giving someone like him honed Force abilities is a good idea.”

“We shall see.”

There was a beat of silence before Obi-Wan asked another question. “Who do you think he knew? The person who… seemed to Force-Choke him often.”

Qui-Gon sighed and tilted his head to think. “That I can’t say. There have been many Jedi who left the order, or Fell, and we’re not the only group to use the Force actively. But he did mention a dislike for our lightsabers, so it’s most likely someone who Fell. I don’t know who it could be, though.” Qui-Gon felt something settle into his bones, and he reached out into the Force in an attempt to push it away. It helped marginally. 

Obi-Wan hummed and tapped his chin. “Should we add that in our report?”

“That’s up to you, Obi-Wan. Let’s go in and see if any progress has been made, hm?” 

Inside, Hux was speaking sharply to a handful of councillors and gesturing with a hand. His other hand was stiffly balled up in a fist by his side. 

“He’s strung up all the time, isn’t he,” Obi-Wan observed. “Did he ever say where he was from?”

“I do not believe so. His accent is incredibly standard for any Core world. I know we can rule Alderaan out, though.”

“Why don’t you just ask, instead of trying to figure it out yourself?”

“Because it’s more fun this way.”

Hux was staring at them now, or was it glaring? He squeezed his way through the circle of people and made his way over to the two Jedi. He pushed his once again disheveled hair back and took a few breaths while his eyes flicked between the two of them. “Why aren’t you helping?”

“You have this under control, do you not?”

Hux narrowed his eyes at Qui-Gon. “You said this was _your mission._ ”

“And I’m using any available resources to complete it,” Qui-Gon said.

“Master, he has a point. Even if Hux did amend our mistakes, it’s still our responsibility to see this mission to its proper end.”

Hux’s posture straightened.

“Hmm. I guess you’re right. Has the council made any public announcement to their change in plans yet?”

Hux glanced behind him. “I believe they’re going to within the hour. I doubt that’ll stop the protests immediately, but eventually those people will have to sleep.” His shoulders slumped and he rubbed his face. “I would much rather leave now than wait for results.”

“How did you know how to, er, fix it?” Obi-Wan asked after a second of silence.

It was nice to see Obi-Wan strive to see what he could’ve done better, though Qui-Gon hoped he was prepared for a disappointing answer from Hux.

“How? I thought about it.” Hux studied Obi-Wan, giving him more than just a disappointing answer. It took an extra second for Hux to elaborate. “I know how to organize things efficiently and keep things moving. What are they teaching you? Poems?”

“Initiates and Padawans take a wide variety of classes and courses, though they are more general courses and not truly specialized. Where did you learn, Hux?” Qui-Gon blinked as Hux stayed silent for an amount of time longer than it would normally take to answer a name of a school or university.

“I had a few tutors, and I went to a standard academy. I don’t see how that’s relevant, though.” Hux was deliberately leaving out specific names. Hmm...

“I suppose it’s not. Obi-Wan admired your strategy, you know.” Qui-Gon patted Obi-Wan on the back as the padawan blushed. 

“I- _Master._ Please.” 

Hux, meanwhile, looked borderline flabbergasted. “Pardon?” he asked quietly, almost to himself. He then looked to Obi-Wan, and smirked. It was the first true smile of enjoyment Qui-Gon had seen out of the man. “I see… Don’t ask stupid questions and I might be inclined to answer.” Hux’s smile turned sardonic as he looked away. He laughed with a single puff of air and turned around.

What was so amusing? Qui-Gon raised a brow. Hux always had strange reactions to his padawan’s words. Perhaps he knew him at some point? But why didn’t Obi-Wan? 

Every minute around Hux only sparked more questions.

Obi-Wan’s face was worth it, though. It was a mix of excitement and offense. He was warming to Hux slowly but surely. Qui-Gon chuckled, earning odd looks from both Obi-Wan and Hux.

As Qui-Gon formulated a plan, he thought absently that the Council wasn’t going to like it one bit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think we'll see POVs outside of Hux's too often, but I did have a lot of fun exploring more of Qui-Gon!


	4. Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love every single one of you and you guys are a huuuge help in keeping me somewhat sane while I social distance myself from everyone :,)

Hux would rather shoot himself than admit to anyone other than himself that he was enjoying himself. He turned around fully from the other two Jedi to revel just a bit longer with less judgement. But he couldn’t help but sneak a glance back. Seeing Kenobi’s face made him laugh again. He wished Kylo could see him now, making conversation with his grandfather’s master and best friend. 

Slowly, Hux pulled himself out of excitement and reminded himself of the task at hand. He could imagine Ren’s anger on the matter later. Preferably when he was alone. Bringing up a hand to his chin, he had an inkling that he wouldn’t have as much alone time as he would like if the Jedi were intent on him sticking around (which was another entire debacle to unpack).

Feeling eyes on his back, he turned back around and crossed his arms, making sure his face was impassive. Seeing as he didn’t need to get the attention of the two Jedi in front of him, he explained the next course of action. “The council is about to make an announcement to their amended plans. I just assumed you two would be willing to have your names credited in who helped when they asked if we wanted to be included. You have a minute or two to change that if you want.”

“No, that’s alright,” Qui-Gon said. “What about you? Will we hear your name or no?”

Hux’s face was seconds away from twisting into something mocking. “Yes. Why wouldn’t I take credit when I clearly contributed the most?”

Qui-Gon shrugged. “Some don’t like being the center of attention, though I suppose you have no problem with that. Did I ever compliment you on your speech? It was very nice.”

Hux blinked. “Thank you,” he said slowly. “I’m good at speeches.”  _ Even though most seemed to dislike them.  _

A bell chimed, signaling a broadcast was about to be made. Hux resigned to moving to the edge of the room.

Councillor Amilonn was behind a podium and had a holo in front of him. “Greetings, Sanctuary Coast. First, I would like to wish you all a good day today. Second, I would like to address our refugees, who have been treated poorly recently. As you may have heard, just a few days ago we had opted to send refugees to other planets to lighten our load here. However, our council had failed to address the root of the problem. With help of Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice Obi-Wan Kenobi, as well as a recent refugee by the name of Hux, we revised our plans.”

Hux tuned the rest of the announcement out, already knowing what was going to be stated. Instead, he recalled what had happened to have him end up where he was now: a hailed hero to an Alderaanian city. The sentence in itself was odd. Sure, Hux had always seen himself as a hero, at least in the First Order’s scope of things. Morally, few would consider calling him a hero. He has killed more people than the entire population of Alderaan. That certainly wasn’t an easy feat. 

It was all to get rid of the New Republic’s disorderly ways of ruling the galaxy. The First Order was an Order for a reason. But after the destruction of Starkiller Base and the many headaches the Resistance caused him, as well as the abuse of Ren and Snoke, Hux’s passion for the war had waned. He had even helped the  _ traitor  _ FN-2187 multiple times. Which of course, in the end, got him killed. He should have seen it coming, or at least killed Pryde before he bit the dust.

(Hux felt his leg and chest start to burn with phantom pain. There wasn’t even a scar there, but the blaster’s pain was still clear in his mind.)

But what exactly brought him here? Hux still wasn’t sure he was in a coma and hallucinating all of this. It was just so bizarre. The only person he could point a finger at to blame was Palpatine, but he’d never even met him (though he supposed Snoke and Palpatine were one in the same). 

Hux had  _ died.  _ His life was snuffed out in the middle of a war like a lowly trooper. The realization chilled him. Bitterly, thought he would’ve deigned to enjoy eternal rest, but instead he was here and alive. 

Static pierced the air for a second as the broadcast ended. Hux twisted his neck to get out of his thoughts. The council and the guests gathered near the middle for closing statements and thank yous.

“Of course,” Councillor Amilonn was saying, “We wouldn’t be where we are if it weren’t for the Jedi and Hux. We sincerely thank you three for your help and input. Sanctuary Coast is always open if you need help with anything. Especially you, Hux, as you mentioned you were a refugee? We can supply you with some credits, at the very least.”

Hux tilted his head to the side in mild confusion. “Pardon? I-I- of course. Thank you. I was planning on going with the Jedi to Coruscant, actually, but I won’t forget your offer.” It was transparently unfair to give Hux such available resources, but Hux wasn’t about to point that out. He did need money, and he wasn’t going to say no for a reason like that.

“Splendid. You have an ID, yes? We can send it there as soon as we can. If you printed a card, we could do it right now.” 

“Yes, of course.” Hux took out his card, reading his own name with mild dislike before handing it over to Amilonn. A device scanned it and beeped when it was done, and Amilonn handed it back to Hux. Pocketing the card swiftly, Hux thanked Amilonn again.

Hux glanced towards the Jedi, and spotted Obi-Wan giving him a very disapproving look. Qui-Gon didn’t seem happy or unhappy. Why was he agreeing to go with them? 

“Again, we thank you all for your time. We hope the next time we meet it’ll be under much better circumstances.” 

“Thank you for having us, councillors,” Qui-Gon said. “It was very nice meeting you and seeing Sanctuary Coast.”

Obi-Wan and Hux nodded in agreement. Moments later, they were off to the spaceport to wait for transport. Qui-Gon had taken a few minutes on the way there to update the Jedi Council and ask for transport, considering their last ship left during the protesting. 

Hux watched the sun set from a window in the terminal they were waiting at. The mountains in the distance turned from white to pink to gray. It reminded Hux of when he fired on the Hosnian system, only that was filled with much more red.

“Alderaan has always had beautiful sunsets,” Qui-Gon said, sidling up next to Hux. “Though I think my favorites have been on Hosnian Prime, especially in the city. It’s a perfect blend between sentient culture and nature.”

Hux struggled to breathe. “Really?” he choked out. Hux cleared his throat and stared at a white capped mountain. “Never had the chance to see one.” He wondered what the last sunsets on Hosnian Prime were like. 

Qui-Gon turned to him with a smile. “You should. Do you have a favorite sunset, Hux?”

Hux looked to him with restrained emotion. Why was he so worked up over this? Did Qui-Gon know about his past- the future? There was no way. Maybe he could shift the topic away from planets that didn’t even exist. “My home planet’s sunsets were… nice.”

“Oh? What’s your home planet?”

“Arkanis,” Hux said quietly. “Though I must say it holds little good memories for me.” He sighed. “Every once and awhile, the rain would stop just as the sun started to set. I think that’s what most people put on postcards, though, so it doesn’t seem as rare as it actually is.”

“Arkanis? Isn’t that in the Outer Rim?”

“Glad to know you know your astrogeography.”

“You don’t sound like you're from there.”

“I wouldn’t dream of it. My father wouldn’t have me sounding like-”  _ my mother, our lowly servants  _ “-the locals. He made sure I had a Core accent after we left.” Hux let his anger for his father leak into his words. While he couldn’t fault him for forcing him to speak a certain way (it helped him rise to General, after all), that experience came along with many more hardships than Hux cared to remember.

“Interesting.”

Hux snorted. “That’s the nicest way to put it.”

They lapsed into silence until Obi-Wan informed them that their ship had arrived. The pilot was skeptical of Hux, but Qui-Gon managed to push it away with ease.

Hux was convinced it was a mind trick.

The ship was small, meant for no more than ten passengers. There was a small lounging area, a small kitchen, two small bedrooms, and many other very small things. Hux felt mildly claustrophobic. He spent years on Star Destroyers and other incredibly huge ships that being on one that would be the size of a large escape pod wasn’t exactly Hux’s ideal way of getting from one planet or another, but he supposed it was better than nothing.

Hux made a beeline towards the kitchenette. A minute and a half later he had a hot caff in his hands and he felt more himself after his first sip. Sitting on the couch in the lounge, he frowned at his surroundings. Even though things around him were familiar in concept, everything wasn’t. Even the caff he was drinking wasn’t what he normally had.

Setting down his cup on the table in front of him, Hux leaned back and closed his eyes. He was  _ tired.  _ No only from the past few days, but from the past few years, from his entire life, if he dared. Shifting, he got more comfortable. The art of being able to sleep anywhere was near perfected by Hux by the time Starkiller was finished. 

Even though Hux heard a door hiss open and close a few times, his eyes were fighting him to stay closed.

Hux soon found himself surrounded by rain, sparks of red, and a faint hum of something in the background. And then he was falling, he  _ was  _ the rain, and he was falling towards the red more and more and more until he was about to turn into steam and then- wait, no, he was the storm itself, pouring down onto the red like he had a been a cloud storing water for years and years and years and now he finally had the chance to let it all go. He was tossed up and then pushed down and then-

The ground shook as the ship landed. Hux was flung to the left, but caught himself with a hand. With his other hand on his chest, he had to take a moment to let his heart calm down. He took stock of his surroundings: the ship, the couch, the cup of caff, and the two Jedi.

Quickly sitting up and shoving his hair out of his face, he glared at them. 

“I do apologize about the bumpy landing, Hux. That’s never a fun way to wake up. But we are in Coruscant.” Qui-Gon was by the door already, and it looked like Obi-Wan just left. “I hope you had a nice nap.”

Hux groaned but stood up anyway. “Alright, Coruscant. Where, exactly?” he asked, joining Qui-Gon by the door.   
  


“Why, the Jedi Temple, of course.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the Arkanis accent that Hux doesn’t use on purpose is an Irish accent, just like his actor’s. I couldn’t resist, and hopefully it’ll be put to use in the future!


	5. Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! The title changed! That might happen a few times.
> 
> We're still in the copious-amount-of-exposition stage my lovelies, bear with me.

Hux stepped out of the aircraft before Qui-Gon, holding up a hand to block the harsh rays of an early morning sun. Vehicles were whizzing about all over the horizon, and people milled about inside the hangar.

The moment Hux’s feet met solid ground, though, something changed. It was minute, like a change in air pressure, but it wasn’t air pressure, or gravity, or anything like that. It was something from himself. He put a hand to his temple and massaged it and hoped it would go away. Maybe it was from waking up so suddenly?

Further ahead, Obi-Wan was talking with who Hux assumed was another Jedi, as he had the typical beige tunic, and also a large brown robe. Qui-Gon sighed, but when Hux looked to him he was smiling. 

Hux dropped his hand and straightened himself and ignored his headache. He pushed his hair back, straightened his clothes, and took a deep breath.

“There’s nothing you need to worry about, Hux,” Qui-Gon said as they neared Obi-Wan and the other Jedi. “Though, you might want to keep your temper in check. A lot of Jedi are highly empathetic.” 

“My temper?” Hux asked, offended. “I do _not_ have a temper.” Compared to Kylo Ren, he was the most passive creature in the universe. (And Kylo Ren wasn’t here. Kylo Ren didn’t exist.) Hux glared at Qui-Gon. “What makes you so concerned I’ll lose my temper in the first place?”

“You’ve expressed multiple times your dislike for the Jedi. This is, of course, our home.”

“Right,” Hux muttered. “Your home.” The last time Hux was on Coruscant, he had seen the ruins of the Jedi Temple, but he didn’t dare venture close enough to see inside. It was just another thing to add onto his list of things that didn’t exist anymore that he’d actually been to.

“Ah, Master Jinn, glad to see you made it back in one piece,” said the unknown Jedi. He had a deep voice and a sharp tone; an overall commanding presence. Then he looked to Hux, and his demeanor changed from confused to angry to exasperated. “Who the hell is this? I wasn’t informed you were bringing guests, Qui-Gon.”

“Master Windu, this is Hux. He was the driving force behind our success for the mission in Alderaan. Hux also needs to use our medical facilities.”

Windu. Where had Hux heard that before? 

Windu raised an eyebrow. “And?”

“And I was thinking of letting him stay in the Temple until he can get back on track, since he is a refugee. We haven’t turned down people in need before, have we? There’s no reason to stop now, Mace.” 

Qui-Gon was cheeky, which Hux could appreciate sometimes. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, Master Windu,” he said, fixing the Jedi with a hard stare. He _knew_ that name from somewhere. Ugh. The headache wasn’t helping with his thought process at all.

Windu nodded, but didn’t look impressed. “And you, Hux.”

“General,” Hux mumbled. 

“Excuse me?” Windu asked, fully turning to him.

“I didn’t say anything,” Hux said, his face scrunching up in annoyance. 

Windu studied him. Hux studied him back. 

It was General Mace Windu. Kylo Ren praised him frequently, saying that he was the one Jedi who was willing to use the Dark side when he needed to, at least compared to his peers. Hux winced as his headache flared, but he kept his gaze. 

“You’d do well to not lie in the future, Hux,” Windu warned before returning his attention to Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan.

Hux’s shoulders rose like a challenged cat, but he didn’t retort. He pushed his hair out of his face, _again,_ and crossed his arms with a huff. Hux didn’t know if he should be happy he got to meet another one of Ren’s idols in spite of him or angry because this was one of Ren’s idols, and he couldn’t trust anything to do with Ren with a ten-foot pole.

Hux didn’t have the chance to decide before a shudder ran up his back, and suddenly his entire body ached like he had a nasty cold. Was he seriously getting sick? Hopefully the Temple had decent medical care. Hux had a feel he would need it.

Tuning back into the conversation, Hux found that Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan had to make a report to the Jedi Council, and that… oh. Hux was being dragged along with them. Windu gave him a look that said he had little choice in the matter. 

Hux didn’t like that. “Could I at least,” Hux had to stop for a moment and take a breath, “take a shower first? I’ve been needing one for well over a week now.” Hux always had less fear reporting to Snoke if he’d taken a shower before doing so. Not like the Jedi Council was anything to fear, but it was a similar enough concept to set Hux on edge. “And get a medical check-up?”

Windu considered him, and his appearance. “Luckily for you, we have some extra time today.” He checked a clock on a nearby wall. “You have two hours until your report. That should be plenty of time to clean yourself up, at least.” 

Qui-Gon nodded, and even Obi-Wan looked mildly pleased. This was the first time Hux saw Obi-Wan look remotely relaxed, too, but the padawan still had an annoyingly cold demeanor. 

“Right,” Hux said with a sniff. “Where can I go do that?”

Windu turned around. “Follow me.” 

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan readily followed, but Hux hesitated. It wasn’t because he didn’t want to follow, he _did._ But it also felt like someone just punched him in the gut. And the feeling _didn’t go away._ Hux couldn’t explain what he was feeling other than something was very, very wrong. Taking a shaky breath, Hux followed.

The Temple was grand, open, and seemed to be a generally happy place. Hux could tell the architecture was old, and probably older than any other building on Coruscant. Hux internally groaned. How much were Jedi traditionalists? He dreaded the answer. Tradition in itself wasn’t bad, but there can always be too much of something.

“Hux? Are you alright?”

Hux met Qui-Gon’s eyes. “I’m- what do you think?” he muttered, struggling to keep his posture perfect under the pain and the building pressure of _something_ under his skin.

“We best hurry to medical, then.” Qui-Gon rounded Hux and put a hand on his back and ushered him forward.

“H-hey! You don’t have to push me,” Hux snapped, earning the attention of everyone around him. Lowering his voice, he glared at Qui-Gon. “I can walk on my own, thank you.” He took a few steps away from Qui-Gon’s hand and continued his pace forward with more swiftness. 

“Take the next right when you see it,” Qui-Gon called, keeping his slow pace alongside Obi-Wan. 

“Next right?” Hux repeated, scanning the looming hallway as he walked. Ah, just a few more ste-

Hux put a hand to the wall and gagged. What was _happening?_ Inching forward, he rounded the corner to make sure those two didn’t see him do anything else unsightly, because Hux was sure he was seconds away from fainting, if the black dots swirling around his vision was any clue.

Hux saw a group of older younglings ahead, whispering and sneaking around. Hux blinked, his vision blurring, and then- he heard a familiar hum of a lightsaber, and it was right next to him and he couldn’t stop it he couldn’t run he couldn’t move or speak or breath or think-

His ears rang at the sudden silence. Everything stopped. Hux was staring at a boy with a green lightsaber in the eyes, and the boy was only inches away from him, his lightsaber even closer. Hux couldn’t have it near him, not if he had the choice. Not if it was Ren’s or anyone else’s. 

The boy was no longer in front of him. Nothing was in front of him. The pressure he had felt was gone, utterly gone, as if it hadn’t even been there. But he did feel exhausted, like when he was tracking down someone on a Star Destroyer. Hux fell to his knees just as his ears popped and sound came flooding back to him.

Dust settled around him. (Dust?) Something crumbled off to his left. (What could cause such damage?) The boy he had seen no longer had his lightsaber. (Thank you, thank you, whatever happened, it’s gone.) A young girl was crying. (Please be quiet, something isn’t right!)

Hux then felt his stomach flip, but it was like butterflies of excitement and pure happiness. He felt himself float up and up and up to the clouds, and he smiled to welcome home someone who he hadn’t seen in a while.

Everything was okay, for once.

Hux’s euphoria was cut off by a wave of black silence.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guys might have some questions, but trust me most WILL get answered soon in the next chapter or so! Feel free to ask in the comments but I can't guarantee a fulfilling answer.
> 
> Also, yes, the dream from the last chapter was foreshadowing for this chapter c:


	6. Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A Windu POV? More likely than you think! He's not the easiest to write, but he is fun!

Mace Windu was not a happy man. 

“Let me get this right. While on Alderaan, after you made a horrendous mistake and made the situation in Sanctuary Coast  _ worse,  _ you found this man, Hux, who then wanted to help fix the problem you made, as well as the pre-existing problems. You allowed him to help, and he miraculously ended up making a streamlined plan for refugees for the city, and you somehow thought that you needed to bring him to the Jedi Temple because…?”

Qui-Gon’s stance never wavered in front of the Council. “Because he looked like a man in need of help, as I told you before, and while he wasn’t totally on board at first, he did eventually change his mind and took up my offer of coming here if not for getting a medical check-up.”

Mace took a breath. There is peace. There is peace. “And you did this knowing practically nothing about him? Do you even know his full name? Or if Hux is even his real name? What planet he’s from? If he has a criminal record, or anything else that could be potentially harmful to the Jedi or the Republic?”

Qui-Gon tilted his head. “I would assume his name is Hux, seeing he responded well enough when he was called that, though I do not know if that’s his full name or not. He’s from Arkanis, though it sounded like he hadn’t been there in a long time. Hux certainly doesn’t have the most… kind disposition.”

Mace pinched the bridge of his nose. “Did you know he was Force-Sensitive?”

“No, but I had my suspicions. His presence in the Force was odd, like it had been tangled up by barbed wire or the likes, but it was similar to someone who wasn’t Force-Sensitive that I couldn’t tell for sure. I’m assuming he didn’t even know what he was doing when he suppressed it like that, enough to even block out his awareness to the Force completely.”

Mace recalled the… incident. He had been chatting with a group of younglings just down the hall when the massive Force explosion from Hux happened. Mace had thought that Hux was a hostile, but it turned out he was just an idiot. A dangerous idiot at that. 

Mace had found the poor man just moments later completely unharmed while everyone else around him were either mildly injured or incredibly confused or both. Hux looked relaxed, which Mace guessed wasn’t a normal look for him.

More disturbingly, though, were the shatterpoints surrounding the man. Mace thought he was going to get a migraine if he looked for more than a handful of seconds. When he’d first seen him, Mace had only noticed a few clear-cut paths but didn’t bother to explore them, and there was an underlying threat of headaches. After Hux’s… awakening, per say, so many new paths opened up that it was going to take time to be around the man and not feel absolutely terrible.

When Hux was then brought to the medbay, along with the injured bystanders, the healer explained his interesting but not unheard of situation. But why would Hux need to suppress the Force so much, and for so long? He hadn’t woken up yet, so they couldn’t ask.

“Luckily for you, Master Qui-Gon, you nor your padawan will be severely punished for this because your mission, in the end, was successful. You _will_ avoid such problems in the future.” 

Mace fixed the two with a hard stare. Qui-Gon smiled and nodded, but Obi-Wan looked troubled. 

Yoda grunted. “Dwell on your mistakes, you will not, Obi-Wan. Focus on the present, you will. Here and now.”

Obi-Wan nodded, but his eyes were still on the floor.

“This report is over. Thank you, Master Jinn and Padawan Kenobi. We’ll give you a new assignment by the end of the week. You’re dismissed.”

Once they were gone, Mace groaned. “Of all the years to be alive, why did I have to be stuck in the same time as Qui-Gon?”

Laughter echoed in the room. As some members filed out, seeing as the report was done, Plo Koon gave Mace a half-reassuring and half-it’s-all-in-good-fun pat on the shoulder. “You know why we keep him around. It would be incredibly boring otherwise.”

“I dislike the fact I agree with you.” 

Plo Koon laughed and exited alongside Yoda, thus leaving Mace alone. He and Yoda tended to be the last ones to leave, as they liked to think and overthink and over-overthink many things. Apparently, Yoda faithfully gave Mace the responsibility to solve the problem of what to do with Hux. 

It had only been a handful of hours since Hux’s Force-Sensitivity presented itself, and while Mace had managed to focus on Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan’s report, he couldn’t help but troubleshoot in his every free second.

Qui-Gon was obviously starting to become fond of Hux, Obi-Wan less so, but it was clear the padawan had some form of admiration towards him. Mace wasn’t worried about them forming harmful attachments, but more-so about what Hux’s appearance meant to the Order. Every once and a while the Order would find people that weren’t small children who were Force-Sensitive, and usually those people never expressed any interest into becoming a Jedi unless they were older children, to which the Order would, of course, deny them entry.

After the healer explained what had happened with Hux, Mace had dug through old files of similar cases and found what the Order did to help such people. He was, quite simply, disappointed. People in similar situations like Hux were almost never offered entry into any part of the Order, nor were most given guidance on how to cope or deal with the wuthering experience of suddenly being aware of the Force, either for the first time or after a long period of time.

Why didn’t the Order offer them help of any kind? They only gave these people a diagnosis and urged them to leave. The files Mace had gotten his hands on didn’t explain the intricacies of what these people were suddenly experiencing, but it must be disorienting at the least. Why was the Order keen on not allowing these people to have at least some form of control over this new aspect of their lives?

Perhaps he should ask the healers why that was the case.

Down in the Halls of Healing, Mace quickly found where Hux was. Unsurprisingly, Qui-Gon was there, and Obi-Wan was sitting on an empty bed reading a book. Hux wasn’t awake, but still managed to give Mace a headache.

“So, did he receive a thorough medical checkup like he wanted?” Mace asked, standing at the foot of the bed. Hux was asleep and in a simple white robe, standard for most patients who were expected to stay long, and his old clothes were neatly folded on a nightstand beside him.

Qui-Gon hummed. “Partially. We haven’t administered any vaccines yet, because we need his consent, but we did do a general scan to see if he had any problems.”

A healer, a female twi’lek with lavender skin named Rikshen, elaborated. “He has a few vaccines that need boosters, as well as some he needs to have in general, and he has a lot of… a lot of scars from blaster bolts and… and a lightsaber.” Rikshen worried her bottom lip as she rattled the list off.

“He did say he didn’t have the best experience with Jedi in the past,” Obi-Wan said without looking up. Flipping a page, he added, “though he also said whoever that person was wasn’t a Jedi, and that we wouldn’t know them.” He sniffed. “I don’t think being Force-Choked is a pleasant experience, either.”

Mace knew that the air of nonchalance Obi-Wan was giving off secretly expressed a lot of worry. “Tell me more about the scars.”

Rikshen nodded. “The blaster bolt ones seem like ones anyone would have during a war, but I’m not entirely sure what gun they could’ve come from. The saber ones are more concerning, though. You see, he has a lot of small-scale ones, like he was poked or grazed with the saber, not enough to do lasting harm, but definitely enough to hurt, or the blade used was just short. There aren’t really any significant scars, just… just a lot.”

“Thank you, Healer Rikshen.” Mace turned his attention back to Hux. “Did you find out anything not related to his health?”

Qui-Gon nodded with his head towards the nightstand. “His ID card he had gotten from Alderaan had his full name and year of birth. He’s thirty-five years old, and his name is Armitage Hux. I have no idea why he insists on being called Hux, but I suppose there’s no harm in it.” 

“Thirty-five?” Mace was… surprised, somehow. “I thought he would be younger.” 

Mace stared at this Armitage Hux. What was strange about him, what was making Mace’s stomach turn and his vision spotty was the fact that… he was seeing shatterpoints of this man’s past. He could see definitive moments of the man as a child, or a young adult, alongside future shatterpoints, which was becoming too much for Mace to handle. The lines were starting to blur together and dissipate, though, as though Hux’s past was becoming solid, as it should be. It was achingly slow, and Mace was surprised he even caught it.

“Master Windu?” Rikshen was by his side and helped Mace to stay upright. “Was it…?”

“Hux’s shatterpoints,” Mace started, fighting to keep himself from vomiting, “are a  _ mess.  _ I-I have to go meditate on this. Thank you again, Rikshen. I’ll be back for an update. Hopefully when he’s awake.”

Mace bowed his head to Rikshen, Qui-Gon, and Obi-Wan, and swept out of the room. 

He stopped outside the Halls of Healing and remembered that he hadn't even achieved his original goal. Mace knew the Order’s past decisions weren’t as important as their future ones, though, so he continued on his path to find a quiet spot to breathe and think. 

And probably overthink.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can and will break lore when I need to, because otherwise what's the point? Sorry for the lack of explanation as to what actually happened to Hux; that comes next chapter!


	7. Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey, you, dear lovely and beautiful reader: i love you
> 
> Also to everyone in the comments that guessed as to why Hux "wasn't force-sensitive" made writing this very fun! I didn't change anything, though, but I kept on thinking of you <3

Hux felt a humid gust of wind blow over his face. It was pleasant enough for him to open his eyes. The room was dark, the colors washed out except for a splash of silver on repeated blocks on the wall. He could hear speeders slowly zooming past outside. Where was he again? 

_Coruscant._

Right. Coruscant. Something had happened… what happened? Why was he in the… the Jedi Temple? He felt chilled. His body ached, but he felt relaxed, like he had taken a drug. Was he drugged?

_No._

No, no, he wasn’t. Hux sighed through his nose before sitting up. Next to him was a nightstand with his things, and his clothes, now washed. Hux fingered the material of the robe he was wearing and grimaced at the color. White rarely suited him. Hux spotted a cup of water on the nightstand and slowly drank it.

Right. That’s what happened. He felt sick, and then… he exploded?

_So to speak._

Hux tensed. What _was_ that? It was him, it was his voice, it was his mind and thoughts, but at the same time it wasn’t. Was he even thinking it? It was so deep in his subconscious that he kept on missing it. But it wasn’t wrong. It was like an instinct. 

Hux rubbed his face, then stilled. He heard a chime, and something else in the background. It was like a bee buzzing, but where he couldn’t see the bee, he just knew it was there. And it wasn’t a hornet or a wasp, or anything big, but a small bumble bee, happily moving along with whatever it was given. 

Hux hunched over slightly and stared off into space as he listened. He thought he could hear conversations, but he didn’t know what was being said. It was starting to become overwhelming, whatever _it_ was. Something was telling him he knew, he just didn’t want to admit it. Hux’s eyes drooped as he adamantly thought that no, he truly didn’t know what was happening, and perhaps this was a dream.

Someone hummed next to him, but Hux was too tired and too stiff to do anything about it. He didn’t even open his eyes when that person sat behind him and massaged his shoulders. Were they laughing? Hux quickly fell back asleep.

He opened his eyes and was staring at the ceiling. Eyeing a window, he saw the sky was a bright blue. To his right sat Obi-Wan, who was leaning back on his chair precariously reading the news with an incredibly bored expression. To his left sat Qui-Gon, who was already offering him a newly re-filled cup of water.

Hux slowly sat up and winced as his back ached from the movement, but took the cup and sipped the water. 

“Rise and shine, Hux,” Qui-Gon said warmly. “You caused quite the commotion, you know.”

Hux grimaced. “I don’t remember doing anything like that.” He felt it, though. Something big had happened. But what?

“You- ah, we don’t know what your account is, but apparently you got frightened when you saw one of our younger padawans and then used the Force.” 

“Pardon?” Hux said immediately. “I-I can’t use the Force. You must be mistaken.”

“You can’t almost take out a wall of the temple without the Force, Hux,” Obi-Wan said, giving Hux a look of… was that jealousy? “Unless you used a bomb, but we know that didn’t happen. Therefore, you used the Force, and you are Force-Sensitive.”

Hux shook his head. “No, no, no. Absolutely not. That’s absurd.” He knew it was right, somehow. Everytime he thought to deny it, everything would scream against him that no, he _was_ Force-Sensitive, he _did_ use the Force. 

Qui-Gon tilted his head. “I can tell that you don’t think that’s true. You may have the idea when you were younger, yes? But whatever circumstances you were in told you that were anyone to find out, you’d be killed, or something similar. Am I correct? In the end, the Force protected you and laid dormant, or perhaps you forced it into doing so. Either way, it was incredibly unhealthy. A few more years and it would’ve backfired in serious ways.”

Hux gaped. He turned away and thought back to his childhood. Was there a time he thought he could use the Force? Yes… yes, there was that one time...

_Armitage Hux found out he was going to be leaving Arkanis. Probably for good. But he had to go with his father. Why? Why him? Armitage would just be in space for-forever! He couldn’t stand that man. He was never nice, never proud, never loving, never anything. Armitage sulked in his room, his last night in there. But instead of reminiscing, he could only think of his father. Armitage glared at a pen on his desk while he internally raged._

_Then the pen_ moved. _He immediately stopped his thinking and just stared. Then he reached a hand out and tried to move it. Nothing. The fear of his father finding out… the pen moved again._

_Armitage panicked. Brendol Hux could_ never _find out. Ever. He’d actually kill him. And Armitage didn’t want to be taken away, even though the family already worked with the Empire. Being an Inquisitor didn’t sound fun. Armitage just wanted to… he just wanted nothing. Nothing to happen. But instead… he was leaving Arkanis and now he could use the-_

_No. He can’t use the Force! Armitage Hux absolutely cannot use the Force. No more Force. No more Force. He can’t use the Force. He never did, and never, ever will._

_Armitage repeated that over and over until he was convinced of his words, and then he forgot about it, because he had more important things to worry about._

“Is this common, then? For people to… to suppress the Force?” Hux dug his fingernails into his palm. It was grounding enough. He just… he just wouldn’t think about what being Force-Sensitive actually meant, especially for where- for when he was.

“No, but it does happen, or at least it happens often enough where the Jedi know about it. Most younglings end up doing it because they don’t want to be outcasted in their society, but most aren’t strong enough to keep it up longer than a few years. You, on the other hand, are quite a bit older. This does come with some advantages, though.”

Hux narrowed his eyes. Don’t think about it. Don’t think about it. But… “What type of advantages?” 

“Well, for one, the older you are, or the longer you go without feeling the Force as a Force-Sensitive, when the suppression ends, I would think that you would be more in-tune to the Force than most. You know what’s different from before, and you can pick up more easily on what the Force may be telling you.”

“Oh,” Hux said. That, sadly, made sense. It was like the bees. He couldn’t feel the bees before, but younglings who were always around the bees were less likely to be fully aware that their existence was abnormal. But now he could see every bee, or most of them. 

(Someone, somewhere, was laughing at his ‘the Force-is-a-swarm-of-bees’ analogy. It was probably Kylo Ren.)

“Here, let’s do a little game.” Qui-Gon stood up. “Oh, Obi-Wan, you have to join, too. Come here, don’t give me that look, you know you want to. Good, alright then.” Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan stood shoulder to shoulder, the latter looking less than pleased. “Hux, I want you to say how many fingers we’re holding up behind our backs. I’ll start off by asking you, since putting a question out there seems to work better.”

The two Jedi put their hands behind their backs. “Alright. Hux, how many fingers are we holding up?”

Hux didn’t even have time to object before this was happening. With a sigh, he stared at them both and repeated the question in his head. _How many fingers are they holding up?_

_Fourteen._

Okay… but how many on each hand?

“Qui-Gon is holding up five, two and three, and Obi-Wan is holding up nine, four and five. So. Fourteen.”

Obi-Wan was wide-eyed as he looked to Qui-Gon. They both revealed how many they were holding up, and Hux was correct in every sense. 

“Very nicely done! Though, Hux,” Qui-Gon said as he sat back down, “I wouldn’t expect to be able to do that all of the time. As you get used to having the Force around you and being able to feel like, your abilities will be less extreme. That isn’t to say they won’t be terrible, either. We’d have to take a midichlorian count to get a feel for that.”

Hux blinked. “My midi-midichlorian count? What the hell is that?”

“It’s the things that make you feel the Force,” Obi-Wan said quickly, as if Qui-Gon was about to over-explain it. “The amount you have sometimes determines how strong you are with the Force. It’s not concrete, but it’s science.” 

Hux put his head in his hands. “This is… this is too much.” Thinking back on his life in the First Order… if Snoke, and by that matter Palpatine, ever figured out he was Force-Sensitive they probably would’ve acted like he was hiding it on purpose from them specifically, which wasn’t true at all. Hux would’ve either become some sort of apprentice or Snoke, or worse, Kylo Ren. He could think of every scenario of how that could’ve gone wrong. Death, most likely. Torture. But how many ways? How many setbacks did he dodge because he was so oblivious to his own self?

The cup of water rattled next to him, as well as an empty chair. 

“Hux,” Qui-Gon said slowly, as if unsure of how to proceed. “What… what is making you so distressed? Is it something that’s happening right now?” 

“What? No,” he growled. “Just thinking about how many bullets I dodged because I hid this. Even if I didn’t know it.” Hux’s bare hands moved curled around the bedsheet. 

“Care to tell?”

Hux reeled in his breath, but he couldn’t help but rant, even though he knew he had to be careful. “My-my father would’ve hated me even more than he did if he knew. And so many other people. And that-that Sith wannabe Ren,” he almost spat the name, “would finally have had a reason to kill me, even if he just made some stupid tale to get me out of his way.”

Something he said caught the attention of Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan. What was it? He barely remembered what he said. He’d repeated those words to himself even when he was a General doing his job.

“Sith wannabe?” Obi-Wan asked, trading a look with Qui-Gon. “The same person who choked you and scarred you? I don’t know if I should be relieved or scared.”

“Trust me, you have nothing to worry about. He’s never been your problem. He never will be.” 

Hux realized just how ominous those words were, but didn’t elaborate. Instead he looked to the door, because he felt something… only very slightly familiar. But what?

A handful of seconds later Master Windu walked in, looking pleased that Hux was awake.

Qui-Gon smiled and asked, “Ah, Mace, hold up fingers behind your back and see if Hux can guess.”

“I- what?”

“Just do it. It doesn’t take long.”

Windu looked furious, but complied. 

“You’re… you’re holding up both of your middle fingers.” Hux had to hold back a laugh. 

Windu raised his eyebrows. “Lucky guess. But I’m not here today to assess Hux’s abilities, intriguing as it may be. I’m here on the next step.” Windu cleared his throat to get everyone’s full attention, and then he sighed. “In the past, when cases like Hux’s appeared to the Order, we left those people alone. We would tell them what happened, and then forget about them.”

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan both look perplexed and… disappointed by this info. Hux, though, knew that Windu was holding his future in his hands. Where was this going?

“I didn’t like that. I also wanted to know why. It’s, of course, due to one of our most controversial policies, no entry into the Order if you’re not a youngling, practically newborn. But I looked at what happened to the people we let go, and while most lived normal lives, a few had increasing troubles with Force-related health, which the Jedi are best for taking care of, even though we more often than not did the bare minimum in treating those people. There were also a few cases where individuals couldn’t control their newfound Force powers, and caused a lot of trouble, especially with unintended mind-tricks and small-scale destruction due to expressed intense emotions.”

Windu took a breath. “This brings us to you three. I don’t have time to give Hux what he needs, which is control. You two, however, do. From now until when Hux is able to properly control himself with the Force, you, Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, are responsible for teaching him what he needs to know.” He glared at Qui-Gon. “This does not in any way, shape, or form, mean an invitation to the Order for Hux. He is unfit for becoming a Jedi. If you, Master Qui-Gon Jinn, think you can get away with giving Hux more than he needs, there will be consequences.”

Qui-Gon smiled. It was incredibly bright. “Of course, Master Windu. Whatever you say.”

Windu muttered, audible for everyone, “I knew this was a terrible decision.” 

“I agree, Master Windu,” Obi-Wan added. 

“Hold on, hold on,” Hux said, finally digesting everything. “ _What?_ Do I not have any say in this?”

“Hux, I can assure you that we will be going through this process as quickly as possible. We need you to not be a danger to yourself or anyone else. That is all. You can refuse if you must, but from what I hear, this is your best option, considering the Temple will be providing you a place to stay for the time being. You will most likely be subject to going with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan on their next few missions, which should be good practice for you, but this is for _your_ benefit, not ours.”

Hux appreciated Windu. He was concise and to the point. Perhaps what he was saying was true. “If I don’t like what you do, I _will_ opt out.”

Windu smiled, but it wasn’t all that sincere. “Wonderful. Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, I trust you will teach Hux _what he needs to know_ to the best of your abilities. And, you will be receiving your next mission in the next few days. Be on the look-out.” Windu was silent, then added. “May the Force be with you.”

Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan echoed it back in turn as Windu left.

Hux, meanwhile, groaned loudly. “I hate this,” he muttered.

“You strongly dislike it,” Qui-Gon said. “Hate leads to the Dark Side.”

Hux closed his eyes. He will need all the help he can get if he’s going to live with those two for the unforeseeable future. “I. Hate. This.” He glared at Qui-Gon.

Qui-Gon just smiled. His eyes were way too mischievous for Hux’s liking. It seemed Obi-Wan shared Hux’s sentiment. At least he wasn’t alone.

Hux wondered if dealing with Kylo Ren was a step up from this new horrid situation. (It wasn’t, but Hux could dream.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think I might keep the bee analogy going whenever I can. 
> 
> If you can't bullshit lore to your own needs, then where's the fun? 
> 
> Next chapter will most likely be the last one on Coruscant for a small while, at least that's what my projection is telling me. 
> 
> Hux is also on the verge of a complete mental breakdown, like, constantly. It's fine, I swear!


	8. Eight

After Hux got his vaccines updated, he was free to leave the Halls of Healing. Despite Qui-Gon’s pushing, Hux refused a blood test for his midi-chlorian count. He didn’t care, and it wasn’t mandatory, and he definitely didn’t want the Jedi Order to poke around for information Hux didn’t want them to have, even if the blood didn’t have such answers. There was always another time.

Hux was glad to be able to wear his own clothes again. The First Order uniform was comfortable, though Hux did get rid of the belt, as that was just for show. He didn’t put the gloves on, either, as Coruscant’s weather didn’t call for them. The gloves were nice and lined with a thin layer of fleece on the inside, but Hux knew it would bother him after a short time. 

Hux still had something to do for the Order, it seemed. Windu wanted Hux’s perspective of what had happened the day before. Qui-Gon ended up showing (Hux could’ve used the word escorting, but he didn’t like the connotations of it) Hux to an office. 

The office was small, but it had a few trinkets laying around, like souvenirs from other planets, as well as a potted plant by the window. There was a desk by the wall, but in the center of the cream colored room was a small table with padded chairs facing each other, neatly tucked into the table. 

“He should be here in a few minutes,” Qui-Gon said. He gave Hux a pat on the shoulder before leaving. 

The door shut, and Hux was alone. Usually he’d be fine with that, but the people around him were grounding enough and kept him in the moment. He took a seat at the table and stared out the window. He could see the Senate Building. Hux glared at it and wondered if Palpatine was inside. Hux drummed his fingers on the table slowly. It probably wasn’t wise to pick a fight with the man right now, and Hux didn’t know if Palpatine was capable of figuring out that Hux was a stranger to this era. 

Hux’s scheming was quickly put aside when the door opened again. Hux frowned. “You’re not Master Windu.”

The man… looked to be a Kel Door, and had orange skin. He laughed and put a few papers on his desk. “No, I am not. I am Master Plo Koon.” Koon grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen before sitting across from Hux. “While Master Windu is the most involved in your… case, so to speak, I will be the one taking account of what happened yesterday, as Master Windu was on the scene and had witnessed it, and we want an unbiased account.”

Hux nodded. “I see.” He couldn’t argue with that, and Koon didn’t give Hux any bad feelings. “Where would you like me to start?” Hux asked, sitting up straight. It was odd giving a report while sitting down. He clasped his hands together in front of him.

“Well, I would first like to see how much you know about what happened. I would assume it’s been explained, but I want to make sure.”

“They told me I had been suppressing my Force-Sensitivity, and that because of the, er, explosion, I am now… Force-Sensitive… again.” Hux’s brows furrowed together. It sounded so odd when he put it like that.

Koon nodded. “That doesn’t cover all of it. What were you feeling before that? Was there any indication something was about to happen?”

“Yes. I was feeling sick. Nauseous, migraine, dizzy. I don’t know why, but it didn’t start until I stepped off the ship.” Now that Hux thought about it, he didn’t even know _why_ it happened. 

“Hm, I thought as much. See, wherever you were must’ve had a much lower concentration of Force-Sensitives, which your body got accustomed to over the years. You may have felt a bit sick around a group, but nothing that noticeable, yes? But when you came to the Temple, a place where there are over a thousand Force-Sensitives, your body couldn’t suppress itself any longer. Usually something dire needs to happen for it to truly repeal itself, which is what happened to you. So. What happened?”

Hux blinked. “Oh.” Why was everything making sense _now?_ “How did you figure that out?” 

Koon laughed. “Older younglings who come to the temple experience this sometimes. It was easy to apply it to you.”

“Oh.” Hux thought back to yesterday. “I… I was feeling sick, and I-I think I may have vomited before it happened, but I’m not sure. But…” Hux stopped. He hated admitting to his weaknesses. Sure, he had no problem showing them, but saying he recognized them was hard. “I saw a boy with a green lightsaber. And… I didn’t- I- I haven’t had good experiences with lightsabers in the past. And seeing one up close, I thought- I thought I was a… a target. So. I reacted, and then that happened.”

Koon nodded and wrote something down. “Thank you for sharing. Can I ask about your past experience, then? What color was this lightsaber? Was it green?”

“No. It was red.”

Koon’s pen stopped. “Are you sure?”

Hux clenched his jaw. “Positive.”

“Was it a Sith?”

Hux scoffed. “Nothing more than a wannabe. No.”

“Is this person dead?”

For all intents and purposes? “Yes.” 

(Hux, for a second, wondered how Kylo actually ended up dying. Was it the girl? The traitor? His mother? Palpatine? Or did the bastard end up blowing himself up?)

“Did you kill him?”

“No.” _I wish I did._ “When did this become an interrogation?”

“My apologies. So you got scared, which caused you to repel the boy with the Force. What happened after?”

Hux eyed Koon. Perhaps the man meant well, but those questions were odd. Or maybe Hux was more paranoid than he thought. “I think I saw what I had done, or at least some of it. Then… then I became unnaturally happy. And after that I woke up in the Halls of Healing.” 

“That happiness… that does happen when someone experiences the Force in a deep way. Some who go into deep meditation feel the same. Nonetheless, was there anything else that stood out to you?”

Hux shook his head. “No. Is that all?”

Koon scanned the paper in front of him, then nodded. “Yes. Thank you again for your time. Has anyone showed you where you’ll be staying for the time being?”

“Er, no.”

“Alright then. Give me just a minute, and I’ll show you where. It’s small, but close to Master Jinn.” Koon went back to his desk.

Hux stood up, took one last glance out of the window, and then waited for Koon. Soon enough the two were on their way. While Hux was hoping to have a silent walk, Koon seemed to have other thoughts. 

“I know your first impression of the Temple may be squandered, but have you been enjoying your time here?”

Had he? “I… suppose so. Everyone seems to be invading my privacy, though,” Hux snipped. From wanting blood samples to questions about his past, however related it may have been, Hux wasn’t fond of it. Why did they need to know?

“Ah. Understandable. But you are a mystery to us, Hux. We have a lot to learn from you, but you are the only one who can tell us.”

“Learn from me?” Hux could feel himself start to sweat nervously. “I highly doubt that.”

“You are not a Jedi, and I know the Jedi have a lot to learn from anyone who isn’t in the Order. We are not perfect. You are a refugee, which I fear is a group who will never disappear, and you have, from what little I know, a past that may intertwine with the Jedi more than you think.” 

Hux didn’t know how to feel about that, but it did calm him down. They apparently didn’t know, and Hux was keen on keeping it that way. He didn’t want to deal with that, especially with Palpatine looming just around the corner. He didn’t bother with a response.

Koon seemed to have taken the hint, and the rest of the walk was completed in silence. Hux saw many curious onlookers, from younglings to adults. He made sure not to make eye-contact with any of them. After a few long hallways and an elevator, Koon finally stopped in front of a door that was similar to all the others of the hallway. He held out a key for Hux. “This will be your room from now on. As a reminder it is temporary, so do your best to take care of it, but don’t be afraid to make it homely. Master Jinn’s room is six down and on the left, and I’m sure he’ll be able to help you. I hope you have an enjoyable and enlightening time here, Hux.” Koon bowed.

“Thank you,” Hux said slowly as he took the key. “I will try.”

Koon seemed to find his words amusing and laughed as he walked away. Hux stared at him until he disappeared around a corner. Shoving the key into the keyhole, Hux muttered, “Every Jedi I meet is somehow worse than the last.”

His room was simple. There was a small kitchen, complete with a fridge and microwave, a dining room with a table for two, a living room with one couch and one table, and a door to what Hux assumed was a bedroom and a bathroom. His window allowed him to, once again, see the Senate building. He liked that more than he thought. Everything in the room was a dull tan. Hux did not like that. He was so used to black and red. Perhaps he could paint it such, if he was allowed. 

(Hux realized he was planning to stay for the long haul, and it sent a shiver down his spine.)

His bedroom was the same dull tan with a bed, a nightstand, and a window. The bathroom was small but had running water. Hux sat down on the couch and stared at the Senate building. 

What now?

Before he could answer, there was a polite knock on the door, and not-so-polite someone opening the door. Hux turned around to find Qui-Gon stepping inside. 

“Hello, Hux. I see you found your new home. Obi-Wan and I have just received our next mission, and we may or may not be taking you with us. Oh, and Obi-Wan should be joining us in a few.”

What does that mean? Hux rolled his eyes but invited Qui-Gon to sit down on the couch. Hux grabbed a chair for himself from the dining room and sat down in it in the living room. “Alright then. What’s the mission?”

“We are going to Kashyyyk.”

Hux didn’t like the sound of that. “Are you serious?”

Qui-Gon smiled. “Why wouldn’t I be? Have you ever been?”

“I’ve flown past it a few times, but I’ve never actually been to it.” That job was left to the troopers. 

“Ah, well, it’s a fine place, if you like wildlife.”

“I don’t,” Hux stated, noting that Qui-Gon seemed to love such things. 

“That’s a shame. But the reason we are going is a bit more serious than tourism. The Trade Federation made a threat to a cluster of Wookiee villages, and we’re tasked with trying to negotiate a peaceful solution, which will most likely end up being aggressive negotiations.”

“You mean violence.” That sounded much more entertaining. It’d been a while since Hux was actually fighting rather than commanding.

“Yes. So, do you have combat experience and are you willing to take part in any skirmishes that may arise?”

Hux nodded. “Yes, in fact. To both. Though, I hope you know I don’t know how to use a lightsaber. I’ll need gear I can actually use.”

“Of course. Do you know how many credits Councillor Amilonn put on your ID, by any chance? We did a scan for it while you were recovering.”

Hux sighed. “No. I don’t. How much?”

“One million Republic credits.”

“What?” Hux could hear his heart beat in his ears.

“I said-”

“I know what you said! Why…” That was a lot more than he was expecting. “Well then.” That gave Hux a lot more breathing room. “Oh!” Hux even smiled, though it was small.

“Glad you see you enjoyed that. I’ll let you use that to buy whatever you need. Blasters, probably, and I would recommend something camouflage. I’ll have Obi-Wan go with you. He knows where everything is.”

Hux nodded, just barely processing what Qui-Gon said. One _million._ He wasn’t too sure on how much that would be for him… in the future, but he knew it wasn’t anything to sneeze at. 

There was another knock on the door, and not a second later it was opened by Obi-Wan.

“Can you at least let me open my own door? You two are impatient,” Hux said.

“Sorry,” Obi-Wan said. “Kashyyyk, yes? Trade Federation, Wookiees, most likely fighting?”

“All covered. You need to take Hux shopping for weapons and gear, though.”

“Why me?”

“Because you know where everything is. And you two should spend some time getting to know each other. It’ll be useful for when we butt heads with the Federation.”

Hux and Obi-Wan met eyes. They both silently agreed that the idea was absolutely not happening. The less ‘getting to know each other,’ the better. 

Qui-Gon laughed. “Now, you two have the rest of the day to get that sorted out.” The sun was nearing its set. “Tomorrow, we leave in the late afternoon. This is time-sensitive, so be glad with the time you have.”

“Alright, Master. C’mon, Hux, let’s get you what you need. There’s a high-end shop for what you’re looking for about ten minutes away. I hope you have the money.”

“Trust me, I have _plenty.”_

“Was it really a million?” Obi-Wan asked in a stage-whisper.

“Yes,” Hux replied in a similar manner.

“We’ll be off Master. Can you get us some non-Temple made dinner, please? I need a good meal before going off-world.”

“Obi-Wan, you can’t be that picky.”

“Well, I am, so please just make some. Hux shouldn’t eat the cafeteria food the first night here.”

“Fine, fine. Now go, and don’t dally.”

Obi-Wan just shook his head and left, leaving Hux to scramble to follow.

“Is the food here that bad?” Hux was used to food that tasted bland. It was best for the troopers to maintain a nutritional diet, but there were a lot of them, so it had to be cheap. Hux had eaten it, too, because food wasn’t something he had the joy of being picky about.

“You have _no_ idea.”

“Clearly.”

After a long walk which left Hux out of breath, the two arrived at a small speeder. Obi-Wan settled into the driver’s seat, but he didn’t look happy about it. The ride was silent, and it allowed Hux to view Coruscant more closely. It wasn’t that different from his own time, but it seemed a lot more… carefree. Obi-Wan didn’t dip below the top level, which meant that the shop he mentioned really was high-end.

Obi-Wan eventually pulled to stop, and showed Hux into the shop. The walls were stark-white mixed with black here and there, and each wall was lined with hundreds of models of blasters. The rest had gear, such as goggles, clothes, and many, many other things.

Hux was impressed, to say the least.

“Do you know what you need?”

“Hm… I think so.”

After a while of looking around, Hux eventually had everything he thought he needed and maybe a bit more. 

Obi-Wan eyed the items. “A sniper rifle?”

“Yes.”

“Didn’t see that one coming.”

“That’s the point.”Hux smirked.

Obi-Wan smiled. “Nice touch on the aquata breather. Kashyyyk has a lot of water, though I’m not sure if we’ll be stuck in trees all day or not. What’s that there?” Obi-Wan pointed to a piece of white clothing.

“Hm? Oh. It’s a cloak, and when you activate it, it blends into the surroundings. It wasn’t cheap, but I think it’ll be worth it.”

“Huh. Have you ever been in combat before?”

“Yes. Multiple times. I know what I’m doing.”

“I hope so. I don’t want to have to make sure you don’t die.”

“I’m exceptionally good at keeping myself alive in dangerous situations.” Well, all except for one time, but that was one time! “It’s a surprisingly useful tactic called running away.”

“Ah. I like that one, too.”

Hux almost flinched at the final price. It was well into the tens of thousands. A very nice rifle, a pistol, two knives, the cloak, the breather, and an assortment of other small things should make the mission much more bearable.

On the way back, Obi-Wan was much more open to conversation. “So, where did you fight, then?” 

“All over.”

“What for?”

Hux glared at him. “That is none of your business.”

“Please tell me you’re not a bounty hunter.”

Hux cringed. “Definitely not.” 

“Then I suppose you’re okay.”

“Thanks,” Hux said dryly.

After a minute more of driving Obi-Wan said, “You know we can’t mention we actually talked to each other to Qui-Gon.”

Hux nodded. “Agreed.”

“The first one to tell has to buy dinner. For a week.”

“Hm. Deal.”

Hux wasn’t sure what to make of it. The one person he could think that he bantered with recently was Phasma, but both she and Hux had a more professional mindset, so it usually never lasted. It never seemed to stop with Obi-Wan, though. The man had a lot of sass, and Hux didn’t know if he liked it. 

Perhaps he did. Someone out there didn’t like that he did, and that was a good enough reason for him.

When they arrived back at the Temple, Hux realized how much being Force-Sensitive changed… a lot. (Everything, really.) He heard things more clearly, saw things he usually wouldn’t notice more often, and was definitely feeling something of whatever someone else was feeling, which was the worst part.

An obviously grumpy Padawan (he could tell only because of her braid) had walked past and the mood swept over Hux. And then it passed as soon as it came. He’d have to see if there was a way to stop that, because that felt incredibly wrong. 

Hux was sure there was more to explore, but he was getting tired. He knew after he ate he would be sleeping very soon after. It was something to look forward to, he supposed.

After hauling everything up to his room, Hux and Obi-Wan stopped over at Qui-Gon’s and had dinner. 

“So, have you two become best friends yet?”

“No,” they both said. They both glared at Qui-Gon.

He just laughed. “Of course, of course. Well, I hope the meal is suitable enough for both of you. We have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, so make sure you sleep well.” Qui-Gon gave his padawan a pointed look. 

“Yes, Master.”

They ate in a strangely comfortable silence. The food was better than what Hux had eaten in the past year, at least in terms of the amount of flavor it had. He made sure to thank Qui-Gon before bee-lining towards his room and his bed.

He really was not looking forward to Kashyyyk. Wookiees. He very strongly disliked them. No. He hated them. Especially Chewbacca. Hopefully that creature wasn’t alive, or at least wasn’t going to see him, because Hux didn’t know if he could bring himself to not curse him out if he saw him.

Hux couldn’t think of anything else save for shooting Palpatine in the head before he fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, yes, I love the concept of Hux being a sniper c: 
> 
> Next time: Kashyyyk! The next few chapters may be coming out a bit slower than the rest have been so far, but I really want to make sure I get everything right.
> 
> Chewie will, of course, be making an appearance.
> 
> Plo Koon can't smile, so he laughs a lot. I think it makes up for it.


	9. Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay first of all: 100+ kudos and 1000+ hits? i seriously seriously love you guys :(

Hux reveled in one last moment of existing in the air-conditioned ship. He slung his backpack onto his back and grabbed his rifle case. How much was he going to hate this?

“We’re about a mile or so away from where we will be staying,” Qui-Gon said. “If we make good time we can get there in half an hour. Let’s go.”

Hux immediately regretted everything once he stepped outside. He felt like he was breathing in water. “Do they have air conditioning at all?”

“Don’t be silly, Hux. They’re used to the climate. You should get used to it, too. It’s quite nice, isn’t it?” Qui-Gon took a breath with closed eyes and smiled. 

Hux sighed. “We have incredibly differing definitions of a nice climate.” Taking a look around, Hux noticed he was out of place. Everything around him was green with the occasional brown of mud, while Hux’s fiery hair and stark white cloak stood out. He groaned. 

While Obi-Wan looked like he shared Hux’s feelings about Kashyyyk, he beckoned Hux to follow. “We don’t have all day, Hux. Apart from the weather, is there anything else you dislike about the planet?”

Hux mentally braced himself for the trek ahead before finally following. His boots were already dirty with mud. “Wookiees.” Hux thought back to Chewbacca. Never again. 

“Really? The ones I’ve met are nice.”

“I didn’t have a good experience with them.” Granted, he did want to kill Chewbacca, so it was understandable why the Wookiee hated him. Being imprisoned probably didn’t sit well with the creature anyway, considering the Empire made slaves out of Wookiees. 

“You say that a lot, that you don’t have good experiences with things. How come?”

Hux wanted to glare, but he tripped over a root. He didn’t fall, but he knew he was silently being laughed at. “Everything and everyone hates me, that’s why.” 

Obi-Wan shrugged. “That doesn’t sound like a legitimate reason to dislike Wookiees.”

“You’ve clearly never had a Wookiee roar into your ear.” Cursed, cursed Chewbacca.

Obi-Wan’s face twisted. “That doesn’t sound pleasant. What did you do to have that happen?”

“That is none of your business.” Hux knew he couldn’t say the real reason, or even a half-truth, without having a million questions. That said, his answer didn’t save him from more questions, it just allowed him to skip over the whole time-travel thing. For the moment. Hopefully forever.

Obi-Wan took the lead alongside Qui-Gon at the point leaving Hux in the back. 

Hux realized he had relaxed some. He knew the Jedi scrutinized his every move and word, so being partially out of sight helped his nerves. Although, it did make Hux focus more on the buzzing of the Force around him. Although Coruscant had many other Force-Sensitive people, the immersion Hux felt on Kashyyyk was leagues deeper. Every plant, from the moss to the wroshyr trees, felt more alive than Hux could anticipate. He’d been on forested planets before, some as dense as Kashyyyk, but this time it was wholly different. 

Every living thing seemed to be connected. Hux felt goosebumps trickle across his face and down his back to his arms. He clutched his case tighter and tried to ignore the sensation. If he felt like being insane, he could even guess that some of the trees were bordering on sentiency, but perhaps it was just the Force. It had to be. 

“Hux?” Qui-Gon called out.

Hux turned. “What?”

Qui-Gon chuckled. “You’ve been staring at that tree for almost a minute now. Is everything alright?”

Had he really? Hux frowned. “Do plants have the Force, too?”

Qui-Gon tilted his head as he came and stood beside Hux. “That is the question, isn’t it? Yes. The Force is in everything. Whether they have midi-chlorians is another story, but essentially, the Force is within everything and connects everything together in the universe, especially living things, such as this tree.”

Hux shook his head. That was  _ much  _ too big. “Joy. How much more do we have to go?”

“Depends how long you want to bond with the trees.”

Hux hoisted his rifle case up for Qui-Gon see and smiled coldly. “I will shoot you if you suggest that ever again.”

Qui-Gon didn’t seem to take the threat seriously and shrugged. “I’m not opposed to it myself, but we can continue if you wish.”

Hux would rather go back to the ship and off Kashyyyk, but that wasn’t an option. He gestured for Qui-Gon to lead the way, and he obliged.

Some time into the trek it had started to drizzle, and Hux responded by putting his hood up. Obi-Wan seemed jealous, but Qui-Gon looked like he didn’t even notice. 

As the three passed into a hollowed out log bridge, the two Jedi stopped right before the exit. Then Obi-Wan disappeared. Qui-Gon beckoned Hux to stand next to him. 

Hux peered outside the exit to find a ravine underneath them, and Obi-Wan stood on the other side of the ravine, though he was a handful of yards below Hux and Qui-Gon. It looked reasonable for someone to hop over the ravine from the log, save for the extreme height difference that would definitely break Hux’s legs if he tried.

“Ah, here, let me take this for you,” Qui-Gon said, uncurling Hux’s fingers from the handle of the rifle case. 

Hux turned around. “Hey, give that- _ oof.” _

Qui-Gon had pushed him. That blasted Jedi  _ pushed him into the ravine.  _ Hux didn’t want to admit it, but he did not like the ride down. He thought that he was going to die. That was it. He was going to die on  _ Kashyyyk.  _ It must be that Wookiee’s form of revenge, or maybe even Kylo, or it could even be-

Then he wasn’t falling anymore. He looked next to him. Obi-Wan was holding his arms out with a bored eyes but a cheeky smile. Hux managed to land standing upright with no broken legs. His hood slid off his head, causing his hair to become wet. Qui-Gon landed next to them with a  _ thump  _ and handed Hux’s case back without a fuss. 

“Sorry about that, Hux,” Qui-Gon said as he patted Hux on the back. “We usually have to refrain from telling people, otherwise they cause a scene.”

“Really?” Hux retorted, his voice cracking with sarcasm. “I wonder why. Please  _ never, ever  _ do that again without asking.” He huffed, smoothed out his cloak and uniform, put his hood back up, and followed Qui-Gon with a glare.

After rounding a large trunk, Hux spotted the village. It was as sprawling as Hux could imagine it could be. Houses reached down towards a swift-moving river feeding into a waterfall, and they twisted up and around trees, some out of sight due to leaves. Leading to the village was a wooden bridge that crossed high above the river, though it did have a roof, so Hux didn’t feel he was taking his life in hands when he was going to cross.

“We have to defend all of this?” Hux asked faintly. “With just us and the local forces?” He was hoping the Federation’s side of things were smaller, which Hux knew was very wishful thinking.

“Hopefully we don’t have to defend at all, and everything can be sorted out peacefully,” Qui-Gon said, stepping onto the bridge. 

When they got to the other end of the bridge, they were greeted by two guards. Hux was then reminded that he did not understand Shyriiwook except for ‘hello’ and possibly ‘I hate you very much.’ Qui-Gon, Hux found, did understand it. It saved them from being shot.

A large Wookiee kindly showed them to where they would be staying, and Qui-Gon said that he would be fetching the people they needed to speak to. The house was covered, and did have walls, along with three very large beds. Hux managed to put down his rifles case and set his backpack onto the bed before the three were summoned out to the square. 

Once they were standing in the square of the village, which was actually a circle of wood, the chieftain and another Wookiee brandishing a crossbow blaster spoke with Qui-Gon.    
  


“This is Chief Aynbi, and this is a hired help from one of the bigger cities, Chewbacca.”

Hux was sure the planet had stopped spinning. He didn’t hear the rest of what Qui-Gon said. His fingers itched to take his pistol out of its holster and shoot Chewbacca, but that would be inefficient. Instead he cleared his throat and said, “Deepest apologies. I have to, uhm, go. Scout some areas. You know. As one… does.” He blinked as all attention was on him. He hoped he didn’t interrupt anyone. That would be rude, and very Kylo Ren of him. “Once again, very sorry,” he said again, sidestepping the group to the first opening he saw. “I’ll be back… later,” he finished lamely.

Then he ran. He ran very fast and very far until he was going uphill and had to take a break. Behind him was the village, clear to see, and he could now see that the village was situated in a valley, with a pair of mountains far enough apart to give the village sun in the morning, at least when it was sunny. Hux breathed heavily for a few minutes before he remembered himself and sat down on a log. 

What the hell did he just get himself into? He couldn’t even imagine himself anywhere close to the situation he had gotten himself into even a month ago. A month ago he was fighting a fleeting war with fleeting people and fleeting ideals. Now he was… what? Force-Sensitive, forced to be around Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Master, and… and on Kashyyyk, with  _ Chewbacca,  _ most likely going to fight the Trade Federation a dozen or so years before the Clone Wars even start, and all and all existing without an inkling of the First Order or anything else of that era around him. 

He stared at the horizon as rain continued to drizzle down until movement caught the corner of his eye. It was a frighteningly large spider meandering its way down a trunk. Hux wasn’t scared of spiders, but they were incredibly annoying, especially when they were deadly. He fired his pistol’s first shot on it and killed it. It was incredibly satisfying.

Perhaps small-scale warfare could help Hux mentally. He balanced his head in his hand while his elbow dug into his thigh. What was he going to do about Chewbacca? He couldn’t kill him, sadly, for many reasons, but he didn’t want to become friends. It’d be interesting to see, but… No, Hux, don’t entertain that thought. It would certainly help him to spite Kylo, and in the end give him an advantage. Somehow. 

Groaning, Hux tugged his hood over his eyes and moped. He hated nature. It made him think about things because there wasn’t anything interesting to think about in nature. He could blame everything on the Force now, though, which gave Hux some solace. Yes. It’s the Force’s fault.

Was that how he ended up here? Because the Force? Hux felt a headache forming. He boxed the thought away and instead listened to the rain hit his cloak. It was calming, actually.

Hux didn’t know how much time had passed while he hid under his cloak, but eventually his stomach growled and he knew he had to face the Jedi, Wookiee, questions, and every other thing he hated about this place. He stood up, stretched, winced as his back cracked, and started to slowly make his way down the hill. (If he slipped, he would shoot himself before he hit the bottom.)

The guards let him through without a scene and Hux stealthed his way into the designated house. Unluckily for him, both Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan were there, along with Chewbacca, and Hux was about to leave before Obi-Wan zeroed in on him.

“Oh, Hux, glad you have you back!” Obi-Wan was not pleased. His smile was like a knife. “Where did you run off to? I’d  _ love  _ to know.” Before Hux could move Obi-Wan had an arm slung around his shoulder and was guiding him towards Qui-Gon and Chewbacca. “You can tell me later. You haven’t met Chewbacca yet, so you should do it now.” Hux knew that ‘should’ meant ‘will.’

Oh, dear. He wasn’t prepared for this. He needed at least an hour of planning for this. The Force was very loudly telling him that he needed to do this  _ now.  _

A thought passed through his mind.  _ Be better than General Hux.  _

But how?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next up: the one sided reunion between not-so-general hux and one very confused chewbacca, possibly some death threats from the trade federation, and of course more of dumbass hux
> 
> Also apparently I spelled Wookiee wrong. It has two e's at the end, not one. I fixed the mistakes from last chapter, and I won't be making them again (hopefully). I think Kashyyyk and everything related to it is a dyslexic's nightmare :,)
> 
> Just a heads up: online schooling for me starts this week, and while it in theory shouldn't interfere with writing, it might, so updates will probably be slower until I figure out a good balance.


	10. Ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Oh, Hux, glad you have you back!” Obi-Wan was not pleased. His smile was like a knife. “Where did you run off to? I’d love to know.” Before Hux could move Obi-Wan had an arm slung around his shoulder and was guiding him towards Qui-Gon and Chewbacca. “You can tell me later. You haven’t met Chewbacca yet, so you should do it now.” Hux knew that ‘should’ meant ‘will.’
> 
> Oh, dear. He wasn’t prepared for this. He needed at least an hour of planning for this. The Force was very loudly telling him that he needed to do this now. 
> 
> A thought passed through his mind. Be better than General Hux. 
> 
> But how?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all, I am so so so sorry about the wait. I had a lot of trouble starting this chapter (re-writing is Not Fun), and with school running again I had a lot less than time than I thought. (Not to mention I also got sucked into FFXIV [again] thanks to my friends, so, uh, that's an excuse, I guess.) 
> 
> So please, enjoy!

The Force was definitely telling him something, and Hux was definitely telling the Force to shut up. He can’t just  _ be better  _ than General Hux. As Obi-Wan steered him toward Chewbacca, Hux steeled himself for interaction. He can’t be better, but he can just… be General Hux, without the General part, because there was nothing for him to command. 

Hux was determined to be polite. But seeing Chewbacca standing just a handful of feet away from him made Hux…  _ react. _ It took him only a second to get his pistol pointed at the Wookiee. The Force buzzed around him, fluttering about and unsure of what to do until Hux wished more and more to get rid of Chewbacca. The Force twisted itself without backlash, though Hux did not know what that meant for him. 

Hux wasn’t thinking, and that feeling only grew as blood rushed in his ears and his focus heightened considerably. His hand moved slightly until something, the Force, told him that where he was pointing was the perfect spot to shoot. Breathing harshly through his nose, Hux thought,  _ this is the enemy, he is part of the Resistance.  _ “You… have caused nothing but trouble. You, Solo, the girl, everyone.” Hux seethed, not a care that what he was saying made no sense to everyone else in the room. “If you die now…” Hux’s eyebrows rose and his mouth twitched, threatening to become a smile. “If you die now, then so many problems will be solved.” 

Obi-Wan stood in front of Chewbacca. He was too short to block the shot, so he was little more than a faded blur to Hux, and therefore inconsequential to what Hux wanted to do. 

Then something tugged on his pistol, and the gun flew out his hand. This brought Obi-Wan into view, or at least his outstretched hand. 

Hux watched the pistol leave. It was like he could see it all happening in slow motion. He curled his fingers in the air, and the pistol stopped and trembled in place. Hux could practically feel Obi-Wan’s surprise, and grit his teeth. 

Hux  _ pulled  _ and his pistol came back to his hand. The tug was so powerful that Hux stumbled back, but heavy hands caught him. Bewildered, Hux looked behind him to find Qui-Gon giving him an indiscernible look. 

It took a handful of seconds for Hux to realize what had just happened. His hands trembled and his pistol cluttered to the ground. Why did he  _ do  _ that? What was he thinking? He’s technically never met Chewbacca- did he use the  _ Force _ ? What did he even say? 

“Oh, dear,” Hux whispered. He felt woozy and Qui-Gon had him sit down on a bed. Under his breath he whispered, “ _ there is no Resistance, there is no First Order. No Resistance, no First Order. _ ” Which in the end did not help. The First Order was his sense of pride, like a parent to a child, and everything Chewbacca had done in his time in the Resistance… Hux glared at him. How could he just forget? 

Obi-Wan spoke up. “I have absolutely no idea what is happening anymore. Hux, what did you mean by… by what you said? What did he do? You haven’t even met him!”

Hux was silent. 

“You… you haven’t, have you?” Obi-Wan pressed, looking between Hux and Chewbacca with increased confusion.

Hux pursed his lips. What could he say? He lies by omission, not by actually saying the lie. And why was that even important? He had actually, truly, physically used the Force! That was way more important than him wanting to kill an unimportant Wookiee, right? Though, he had also stupidly,  _ stupidly,  _ said irrelevant things, and he feared everything was going to get worse from here.

“Perhaps,” Qui-Gon said after silence, “it would be best if we contacted the Trade Federation at the moment, and leave this conflict to be solved after that.”

Chewbacca was hesitant, but it seemed like he agreed with Qui-Gon. Obi-Wan frowned and shook his head, but didn’t argue. Hux breathed in, trying to find something to ground him, and knew that he could wait. He was well-versed in waiting. 

The short walk over to the transmission hut was incredibly tense. Hux put up his hood in defense of the ever-steady rain and the uncomfortable atmosphere, and sadly, Hux could only escape the rain. Obi-Wan trailed right behind Hux with a stern eye. Why did it make Hux feel so… guilty?  _ Oh no, I’ve upset General Kenobi, _ Hux thought with heavy sarcasm. He was afraid of finding truth in that statement, so he promptly forgot about it when they entered the hut. 

Chief Aynbi briefed them on the current situation, and Qui-Gon had to translate. It annoyed Hux now that he didn’t understand Shyriiwook, because his lack of knowledge wasted time. Maybe it was something to learn in the future. 

Hux couldn’t focus on what Qui-Gon was saying, though. He stared at his hand. Using the Force, seeing it in action from himself, it was all so incredibly surreal. Hux wondered what his role in the First Order would’ve been had he been Force Sensitive. He shuddered at the thought of being a Knight of Ren. They never did what they were told. Hux supposed now was the best time in recent history to be Force-Sensitive, at least on an individual level. He groaned internally. Everything was a mess now. Hux didn’t even want to think about what he had said to Chewbacca. 

Thankfully, it was then that a holo of a human male, presumably from the Trade Federation, appeared. He eyed the Chief. When he spoke, he sounded almost slimy. “Have you decided to change your mind, Chief? Or will you be staying here to die?”

Chief Aynbi growled back. 

The man closed his eyes and nodded. “I see. We will be coming no matter what. I’d hate to see what pitiful fight you will put up. I sincerely encourage you to leave.” He checked his wristwatch. “We arrive in six hours. I do hope to not see your faces.”

The holo winked out before the Chief could say anything more, but she still roared with anger. Hux didn’t have to understand her at all to see that she was very, very upset and offended. Hux was feeling the exact same as the emotions rolled off her. Logically, he knew he didn’t sympathize with the village, but the sheer amount of empathy he had now got him thinking about the Trade Federation’s sheer audacity! How dare they? 

Qui-Gon chuckled behind him. “I’m glad to see you feel strongly about the cause, Hux.”

Hux whirled around. “I- I most certainly do  _ n _ -” He stopped, and held up an angry finger at the Jedi. “I  _ will  _ shoot you,” he hissed quietly, though he knew the threat fell short. 

Qui-Gon smiled as Wookiees around them sprung into action. “I’m looking forward to it. Now, though, we have to prepare. Did you ever find a suitable place to snipe?”

That took Hux’s mind off things. “Not quite. I didn’t have my rifle with me when I… looked.” Hux hoped that the low lighting of the room hid his embarrassment. That definitely wasn’t his proudest moment. (Not many things were, part of him said.) He straightened himself and continued. “So, I will have to go out and look again so I’m not scrambling when the Trade Federation arrives. I’d rather not die.” 

Obi-Wan crossed his arms thoughtfully. “Six hours is plenty of time to do that and have a conversation about what just happened with Chewbacca, yes?” 

Hux sighed through his nose and pivoted to look at Obi-Wan. “I disagree. And wouldn’t you like to have such a conversation uninterrupted?”

“Hm… perhaps. I take that as an invitation to have a long and intricate conversation about it later, then?” Obi-Wan asked with a raise of a brow.

Hux walked away. When he stepped outside the hut, he saw the entire village flurrying about in organized chaos. Hux couldn’t understand what they were doing, but he could tell they did know. Quickly bypassing foot traffic to his things, he sighed. Instead of wallowing like he would like to, though, he made a mental list.

Rifle, comms, backpack, cloak… He just has to pass out the comms to the others. He had five in total, one for him, two for the Jedi… Hux considered Chewbacca. He  _ was  _ an admirable fighter when an ally… no, no, he couldn’t. It wasn't like he could understand him.

After shouldering his backpack and grabbing his rifle, he set out to hand out two- just two- earpieces. It didn’t take long to find the two other humans in a village full of Wookiees. As the rain slowed to a very light drizzle, Hux found that they were conversing alone, in a familiar stance that looked like they were gossiping. 

Hux didn’t care about that, though, and stepped up to them and held out the earpieces to them expectantly. After a beat of confused silence, Hux explained while suppressing an eyeroll. “Communication. It’s important.” He emphasized them with a small gesture. “Take them. Please.” They did, thankfully.

As Obi-Wan put the earpiece on, he said, “You know, I don’t think we’ve ever done this before, Master.”

Qui-Gon hummed, looking pleased with himself with the earpiece in. “You’re right, Obi-Wan. Thank you, Hux.”

Hux looked between them. “Do you have any strategy?”

Silence.

“Not even you, Obi-Wan?” Surely even a younger General Kenobi could come up with something?

The padawan shrugged. “Usually we improvise.”

Hux deflated. “I cannot believe this,” he muttered. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Obviously the Wookiees will have something planned out, but as for us... “ Hux trailed off in thought. “You’re not ranged, not really, so you obviously have to be on the front lines, quite literally, but…” Hux scanned the region surrounding the village. 

Eyeing the pair of mountains he had seen before, Hux tilted his head. “They’ll most likely be coming through there, yes? As far as I know, that seems like the best place for a large amount of transport and troops to land. The hill,” Hux looked to the hill where he had run off to before, “isn’t good for much except that  _ we  _ would have to fight an uphill battle. There are too many trees to land anywhere close…”

Hux turned back to the two, who looked incredibly interested in Hux all of a sudden. “What?” 

Qui-Gon chuckled. “I heard you had combat experience, but I didn’t think you were a strategist. I should’ve seen it.”

Hux sputtered for a second. He was a  _ General,  _ of course he was a strategist! He then reminded himself that that fact was obsolete now. “I- thank you? That’s not the point. Yes, I am a strategist. That- was my job.” Too much, Hux. He sighed. “ _ More importantly,  _ I’ll be up on the hill. It gives me a very good lookout over the village and where I suspect the Trade Federation will be coming in. You two will be in the village.”

Hux thought for a second. There were so many unknowns. It aggravated him to no end. “If you see anything that the enemy will be utilizing, such as explosives, dropships, specialized forces, anything, tell me as soon as you can. Those need to be taken care of first. I do hope you know how to disarm bombs. They’ll most likely want to blow this place up the first chance they get, judging by their motives.” Hux would’ve done the same, though possibly less fire if he had to keep everything intact for resources. 

“I was also not expecting this,” Obi-Wan commented airily. “What was your job again?”

Hux ignored him. “Be on the lookout, don’t be shy about telling people information, and…” Hux sighed. “Would we benefit from having Chewbacca and possibly the Chief on the line? I can’t understand a word they said, so personally it wouldn’t help me, but…” 

Qui-Gon smiled. “Why not? I can give them what they need, if you would like?”

“Well, aren’t you eager,” Hux muttered as he rummaged to find the other two earpieces. He handed them over to Qui-Gon. “Here. Do translate if it needs to be translated.”

“Of course.”

There was a pause. Hux took that opportunity to avoid anything he didn’t want to hear (mainly from Obi-Wan, that pushy Jedi) and leave. He lifted his chin slightly. “Don’t-” fail? He can’t say that. He wasn't their authority. “-die.”

Ugh. That was much too sincere of him.

He quickly left for the hill and found himself by the log he sat on before. Sitting down, he decided to test out the comm line. “This is Hux. Is this working?”

Hux imagined everyone fumbling to say something. Obi-Wan ended up speaking first.

_ “Obi-Wan here. I’m afraid it isn’t working. Apologies.” _

Hux closed his eyes. He could shoot Obi-Wan from here if he wanted. “Is a warzone not serious enough for you, Kenobi?”

“ _ Negative.”  _

Hux could hear Obi-Wan smiling as he spoke. “Can you see me from where you are right now?”

_ “Er…”  _ Ten or so seconds passed. “ _ Yes. It’s very obvious.” _

Hux nodded to himself, then activated his cloak. He blinked in mild surprise as the cloak almost perfectly camouflaged itself. “Now?”

_ “I can see your hair, but not much else.”  _

Hux grumbled and flipped up his hood. He also grabbed his rifle and looked through the scope, which gave Hux thermal signatures of people, to where Obi-Wan was. “Now?”

_ “Are you- are you pointing your blaster at me?” _

“No, of course not. What are you talking about?”

_ “Oh, I see how it is.” _

“You’re-”

Qui-Gon finally spoke.  _ “Now, now, settle down. Hux, you are very well hidden from where you are. Is that your chosen spot?” _

“No, actually.” Hux took this opportunity to get up from the log and search for a more suitable place to stay hidden. “I don’t have a watch on me. How much longer are we expecting?”

  
  


_ “About five standard hours.” _

“I see.”

_ “Do you want some company, Hux?”  _ Qui-Gon asked teasingly.

“No, I do not. I need time to think some more.”

_ “I need to teach you how to meditate. As we saw before, unrestrained emotions can lead to some undesirable effects. I’ve found that meditation helps before a battle. It may help pass the time, too.” _

“Er. No thank you.” 

_ “My offer is open to you whenever, Hux.” _

Hux didn’t reply back as he focused on looking for a spot. It took him some time, but he did settle on a place where he could see most of everything in the village, even in all of its tiers, and some surrounding areas. He noted the mildly walked path a couple hundred yards behind him, but he doubted anyone would be walking there. 

Now, thought, Hux was starting to get restless. He always got like this in battles with the Resistance when his troops lost significant numbers, but now Hux didn’t have  _ any  _ troops. All he had was himself. 

And the Force, he supposed, but he didn’t know how to utilize it best, so it didn’t count.

Hux shook his head and stared out at the horizon. The rain was beginning to pick up again, and he flinched when a droplet splattered onto his nose. Absently, he thought he should figure out a solid lie for his life story. More specifically, the things about Chewbacca. Yes, he doesn’t try to lie, but this situation is much too dire and complicated to have Hux uphold a silly moral like that.

However, he doesn’t want to paint himself in a bad light. How could he pull this off? Reluctantly, he closed his eyes and asked the Force. Or, he asked himself, again, but with more… passion? He didn’t know how it worked. 

What he got in response was nothing. It was just the usual flow of the Force Hux had been feeling since The Incident. He could feel the life around him, and all of its abundance. Hux would’ve thought it would feel like he was in the middle of a swarm, and an outsider, but in reality he was  _ with  _ the swarm. He was included within the life and abundance. From the bushes beside him to the Wookiees in the village and the far-off birds and then to himself, Hux knew it was all there. 

Was this what meditating was like? It was incredibly immersive, and he was aware and not at the same time. Nothing mattered except that things existed.

Hux didn’t know how long he stayed like that, but he soon became aware of something else, something that wasn’t there before. It was… Hux opened his eyes and stood up. He staggered as the world around him twisted. Everything seemed to assault his senses, especially the drum and coolness of the rain.

He forced himself to stand straight and squinted through the mists. A drone of something else slowly pierced the rain.  Hux fumbled to open his line. 

“I do believe the Trade Federation is here."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please note: I know pretty much nothing about any type of warfare, so I am 100% bullshitting all the stuff Hux says. Confidence is key, right? 
> 
> Sorry about another cliffhanger. I wanted to get this out to guys as soon as I could. I can't guarantee a timeframe for future updates at this point, but I am not going to stop writing this, because I need to know what happens just as much as you do! 
> 
> Thank you all so much for reading, like, seriously. This wouldn't be fun without you.


	11. Eleven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I do believe the Trade Federation is here,” Hux said to the comm line.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's still the fourth for me when i post this shhh

Hux watched as dropships flew over his head, shaking the greenery around him before landing somewhere in the valley. He quickly settled down into a position where he could see the Federation’s main entrance into the village. It would be a matter of minutes before the village was in combat.

_ “Looks like we do have company, yes,”  _ Obi-Wan quipped grimly. 

“I saw two small dropships. I suspect they have somewhere between twenty and thirty troops in total, though they could always bring more. Be on the lookout.”

_ “Thank you for the warning, Hux,”  _ Qui-Gon said. The hiss of a lightsaber activating came through the comm for a moment. 

A tense moment passed. The rain completely stopped but droplets fell from leaves all around Hux. He looked through his thermal scope and waited patiently, making sure to not hold his breath. 

His vigilance had to pay off. Otherwise he’d die.

The light green of his scope telling him where living people were was so tempting. He knew exactly where Chewbacca was… He could kill him any moment in the fight and he doubted anyone would know it was him. Well, he was sure the Jedi would know. Hux will just have to hope he will die in battle.

He moved his scope over to the horizon. A single head popped up, a scout, most likely, before dipping down again. A handful of seconds later Hux finally saw the first wave. Five troops in total waded their way through the brush.

“You have a small squad incoming. Do you want me to shoot?” Hux asked into the comm link. He wasn’t keen on the chance of giving away his position, but hopefully his gear and skill should make up for any setbacks.

_ “Go ahead, Hux. You don’t have to ask, though,”  _ Qui-Gon responded. Hux could hear his smile through the line.

Hux followed the troops through the scope while he mulled over what Qui-Gon had said. Don’t have to ask? He wasn’t the authority… no matter. He took a breath, relaxed into his stance, found his first target, and pulled the trigger.

The rifle was quieter than he expected it to be, which pleased Hux immensely. He managed to land his first shot. Through the scope he saw the other squad members become confused. He took the opportunity to shoot down another. Three were left, but he had to make sure to not give away his position.

“I’ll keep an eye out for any more groups. You should be easily able to handle three or four without any casualties.” 

Chewbacca, or possibly the Chief, grunted something. Hux bit his tongue as he waited for a translation, which was apparently,  _ “thank you”  _ and  _ “good job.”  _

Hux wished Qui-Gon hadn’t translated. It felt extremely awkward. Wookiees should never be thanking him for  _ anything.  _ He shook his head and sighed. Enough of that, Hux, focus on the matter at hand, Hux.

Except that didn’t happen, because just as he was going to scan the horizon again, he heard a cry of a young Wookiee next to him. He hated to admit he was spooked, but apparently the youngling was surprisingly quiet.

He frantically eyed it and where his rifle was aimed before hissing, “Get down!” 

The Wookiee, something,  _ something,  _ was telling Hux that it was a little girl, huddled behind the tree next to Hux and grunted something at him.

“I- what? I can’t  _ understand  _ you- get down, don’t hide behind a tree!” Hux gestured harshly at her to hopefully convey the meaning just in case she didn’t understand.

Apparently she understood, because she quickly followed his orders and cowered near him on the ground. He shot her a look and he couldn’t hide his blatant disgust. 

Suddenly everything became a million times more stressful. 

_ “Is everything alright, Hux?”  _ Obi-Wan asked with an edge to his tone.  _ “I can already see another wave coming and I’d very much like you to fix it.” _

Hux sighed out through his nose. “No, everything is  _ not  _ alright. There is a little Wookiee girl here who shouldn’t be here at all.” Hux angrily focused a shot onto someone, and ended up missing. “I can’t do my job as well as I should with her here.”

_ “Hm, that does sound like quite a problem, Hux,”  _ Qui-Gon teased before he turned his tone more serious.  _ “She needs protection, does she not? She might as well be safest with you.” _

“Do you think I care about that?” Hux retorted, shooting again and missing again. He swore. 

The Wookiee groaned meekly at him. 

_ You’re one of the good humans, right? _

Hux stared at her. Did-? No one was there to translate, but he clearly understood her. “If you’re talking about the Trade Federation,” Hux said slowly, “then I am not one of them. I am… on your side.” That sentence felt incredibly weird. 

She blinked rapidly at him before nodding. Was she experiencing the same as Hux? He had assumed she understood Basic, but this might as well be her first encounter with something sentient other than a Wookiee, considering her age. 

Hux spared her one last look before turning back to the chaos below. He eyed two more squads who managed to slip past his eyes. Remembering he had turned off his comm, he growled another curse. He can’t just turn it back on now; that would be much too embarrassing. Instead Hux scanned for any Federation troops that were special forces, but he couldn’t find any. It was incredibly odd. As far as Hux could tell there weren’t even any squad leaders. 

Hux was tentatively poked by the little girl. He sighed, and tried to keep an eye on the fight below, because something was wrong, or at least Hux wasn’t getting the full picture. “What is it?”

She softly grunted at him.

_ My name is Yroccal.  _

“Hux,” he said, hoping the introduction was over with. Hux knew that it was the Force allowing him to communicate with Yroccal, but didn’t know why. It didn’t happen with any of the other Wookiees, so why her?

He shook his head. Those thoughts were off-track. “Yroccal, you need to find somewhere to hide. I have a-”

“Hey, over there, a Wookiee!”

Hux reached for his pistol and quickly tried to find where he heard the voice. They hadn’t seen him yet, which meant that his cloak was doing a fantastic job. But where was that voice coming from? 

Something (Hux will soon get used to the Force interfering) nudged his eyes over to the left by a small waterfall. There were two humans, each in uniform. One, the female of the two, had a pair of binoculars hanging from their neck while the other, the male, had a very large gun, though it wasn’t pointed at where they were.

Hux slowly handed his pistol over to Yroccal. He didn’t say anything, but he hoped his message came across fine.  _ Be quiet, shoot them if you have to, and I will want my pistol back.  _ He then reached for his rifle, thankful for the natural wild bustle of the forest, and took up aim at the gunner.

Breathing in, he eliminated the gunner with a headshot. The other one pulled out a handgun, but Hux shot her in the thigh and then in her dominant arm. He needed answers.

He crawled out of his position and stalked his way over to the injured Federation troop. Pressing a foot down on her wrist and pointing his rifle at her, he asked, “How many are there?”

She twisted in pain and looked at him through one open eye. “Fifty-fifty eight,” she said before coughing. “We brought fifty-eight with us here- please, I-”

“Shut up,” he commanded. Hux glanced back at Yroccal, who was clutching his pistol and still cowering by the bush. Fifty-eight? That was double the amount he was expecting. “Where did you land?”

“Over-over the hill.” She pointed her head towards the steep slope next to them. “The other half went to the valley.”

“Why?” Hux asked, annoyance lacing his word.

“The village is on the best spot for-for construction in the region, or something, I didn’t pay attent-” 

“Are explosives involved at all?”

She glared at him and tried twisting out from under his foot. “Maybe,” she grunted. 

Hux focused his rifle so if he were to shoot, it would be in between her eyes. “Well? I don’t have all day.”

“Two squads have someone ded-dedicated towards hijacking the village. You’ll never find th-”

Hux pulled the trigger and stepped away from her body. He turned his comm back on.

“Everything alright down there?”

_ “Hux! Where have you  _ been, _ ”  _ Obi-Wan chided. Whirs from his ‘saber could be heard.  _ “You’ve been such a great help, you know that?” _

Ignoring that, Hux relayed the information he just received. “We have to find the saboteurs and find and disable anything they planted as quickly as we can.” Hux sat up against a tree next to where Yroccal was. It was hard to tell where troops would be coming from, but he’d stop as many as he could. “If you really want to, evacuate the villagers.”

_ “‘If I really want to?’ We’ll start on that right away. We want as little casualties as possible,”  _ Obi-Wan said.  _ “How did you come by this information anyway, Hux?” _

“That is irrelevant, but if you must know, I’ll tell you  _ after.”  _ Hux felt no remorse in his little… interrogation, but he wasn’t too pleased with the fact that the others might have a problem with it. 

He heard voices from further up the hill, and he shared a look with Yroccal. “I’m being shot at,” Hux added in a low tone. “Try not to get blown up.”

Turning to Yroccal, he whispered, “Simply point and shoot, and if someone is shooting at you, hide behind a tree or in a bush and stay as quiet as possible.” It felt like he was training Stormtroopers all over again, but this time with a much more reluctant audience and it was in the middle of an active warzone with someone who couldn’t actually understand him.

She, however, nodded with striking determination.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> cliffhanger 2: electric boogaloo
> 
> first of all: again, sorry for the wait! school and fun ended up taking more time than i thought it would and that coupled with writers block is one big heckin' oof.
> 
> but, we're back on star wars day (barely) and while i don't know when exactly i will update next, i do have a better idea of what i want to do for the next chapter.
> 
> also i know i havent responded to chapter 10's comments, but i have read them and i very much cherish them!!
> 
> side note: i will die for yroccal.


End file.
